Sanofi has agreed to buy privately held Amunix Pharmaceuticals for as much as $1.2 billion, as the French drugmaker pushes to expand its pipeline of promising cancer medicines.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi will acquire California-based Amunix for an upfront payment of approximately $1 billion and up to $225 million upon achievement of certain future development milestones.
The deal will give Sanofi access to Amunix's proprietary platform technologies, which can be leveraged to discover and develop transformative T-cell engagers and cytokine therapies for patients with cancer. Sanofi will also pick up Amunix’s promising pipeline of T-cell engagers and cytokine therapies, which includes lead candidate, AMX-818, a masked HER2-directed T-cell engager. The breast cancer treatment is expected to enter the clinic in early 2022.
Sanofi, under pressure to revive its drug pipeline and still overcoming setbacks in the COVID vaccine race, has been busy with dealmaking this year. In August, the drugmaker announced a $3.2 billion purchase of mRNA developer, Translate Bio. A month later, Sanofi struck another major deal to buy U.S.-based Kadmon Holdings, a biotech specializing in therapies for immune disorders, fibrotic diseases and cancer for $1.9 billion.
Sanofi expects to complete the Amunix acquisition in the first quarter of 2022.