Sanofi to buy biotech firm Inhibrx in $2.2bn deal to boost rare disease business
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Sanofi has agreed to buy US biotech firm Inhibrx in a deal valued at up to $2.2bn, bolstering its drug development portfolio with an experimental treatment for a rare genetic disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi will acquire all outstanding shares of Inhibrx for $30 per share in cash, representing an equity value of approximately $1.7bn. Inhibrx’s shareholders will also receive one contingent value right equal to $5 and 0.25 shares of New Inhibrx per Inhibrx share.
Inhibrx has an extensive pipeline of new biologic therapeutic candidates, primarily focusing on oncology and orphan diseases. One of its key assets, INBRX-101, is a human recombinant protein being developed to treat patients with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), an inherited rare disease. INBRX-101 could potentially reduce inflammation and avert further lung function decline in AATD patients. Inhibrx shareholders will also receive a “contingent value right” equal to $5, conditioned on the achievement of a regulatory milestone. The spun-off company will operate under the Inhibrx name and will be led by Inhibrx chief Mark Lappe as CEO.
The announcement comes less than two months after Sanofi and artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Aqemia entered into a multi-year research collaboration worth $140m to discover small molecule drug candidates across several therapeutic areas. “The addition of INBRX-101 as a high potential asset to our rare disease portfolio reinforces our strategy to commit to differentiated and potential best-in-class products,” said Houman Ashrafian, Sanofi’s head of R&D. The company also partnered with BioMap, another AI specialist, last October to accelerate drug discovery for biotherapeutics, with the deal potentially worth over $1bn.
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