Sanofi-Aventis and Regeneron announce collaboration

Sanofi-Aventis and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and commercialise fully-human therapeutic antibodies.

The agreement will see the utilisation of Regeneron’s VelociSuite of technologies while Sanofi-Aventis will increase its ownership of Regeneron’s outstanding common stock to nearly 20 per cent from four per cent.

Sanofi-Aventis will also make an upfront payment of $85 million to Regeneron and will fund up to $475 million of research over the next five years.

Both companies will share development costs with Sanofi-Aventis funding up-front and Regeneron reimbursing half of the development costs from its share of future profits.

The Interleukin-6 receptor will be the first therapeutic antibody to enter clinical development under the collaboration, with the therapy being investigated for its use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Any new product that is successfully developed as part of the collaboration will see Sanofi-Aventis run the major commercialisation tasks and will also consolidate sales.

The companies have agreed to split profits equally in the US and then use a sliding scale for profit distribution generated from sales outside America.

Earlier this year, UCB and Sanofi-Aventis confirmed that Xyzal, their new once-daily medication to treat allergies, had been made available in the US.