Sanofi Teams Up With RadioMedix, Orano in $352 Million Deal for Cancer Therapy — Update

By Andrea Figueras

Sanofi agreed to pay up to 320 million euros ($352.4 million) to U.S. company RadioMedix and the biotechnology subsidiary of nuclear-fuel supplier Orano to license a potential treatment for rare cancers using radiation.

The licensing deal is the latest bet by a major pharmaceutical company on an emerging class of cancer drugs known as radiopharmaceuticals, which use radioactive substances to attack tumor cells in a targeted way.

Sanofi struck a licensing agreement with Houston-based RadioMedix and France's Orano Med, which are developing so-called radioligand therapies against cancer, the companies said Thursday.

With the deal, Sanofi enters the race to develop a type of cancer medicine that has drawn attention from big pharma companies. It follows Bristol-Myers Squibb's $4.1 billion acquisition of RayzeBio, a developer of radiopharmaceutical drugs, completed in February, and Eli Lilly's takeover of Biopharma Global last year.

Novartis has made several acquisitions in the radiopharmaceutical space in recent years--including a $1.75 billion deal to buy Mariana Oncology in May--and its Pluvicto radioligand therapy for prostate cancer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022. The drug generated $655 million in sales for Novartis in the first half of the year.

Sanofi's collaboration with RadioMedix and Orano Med is focused primarily on the AlphaMedix late-stage project, which is being evaluated for the treatment of adult patients with a type of neuroendocrine tumors, a rare cancer, the companies said.

AlphaMedix is being evaluated in mid-stage clinical trials and the FDA granted it the breakthrough therapy designation--a process aimed at speeding up the development and review of drugs--in March for the treatment of adults with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

As part of the deal, Sanofi will be responsible for the commercialization of AlphaMedix, while Orano Med will manufacture it through its global industrial platform, currently under development.

RadioMedix and Orano Med will receive an upfront payment of 100 million euros and up to 220 million euros in sales milestones from Sanofi, and will be eligible for tiered royalties, the companies said.

Write to Andrea Figueras at andrea.figueras@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 12, 2024 03:17 ET (07:17 GMT)

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