Sanofi Inks $359M Pharma Acquisition Deal to Boost Cell Therapy

Sanofi recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire biopharmaceutical company, Kiadis, in a $359 million pharma acquisition deal.

Under the agreement, Sanofi will offer $6.40 per share to develop Kiadis’ “off the shelf” natural killer (NK) cell-based platform to develop treatments for life-threatening diseases. 

This platform is based on NK-cells from “healthy donors” that have the potential to make NK-cell therapy products available quickly and economically for a potentially wider range of indications.

“We believe the Kiadis ‘off the shelf’ K-NK cell technology platform will have broad application against liquid and solid tumors, and create synergies with Sanofi’s emerging immuno-oncology pipeline, providing opportunities for us to pursue potential best-in-disease approaches,” John Reed, MD, PhD, global head of research & development at Sanofi, said in the announcement. 

Kiadis acquired its NK-cell platform in April 2019 from CytoSen, whose shareholders received nearly 1.94 million shares in Kiadis. 

Sanofi stated that its own research, development, and expertise in the cell therapy area will help to advance Kiadis’ pipeline, which includes NK cell-based medicines for the treatment of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant, liquid and solid tumors, and other infectious diseases. 

These NK cell-based medicines will be developed alone and simultaneously with Sanofi’s existing platforms. 

“Sanofi’s offer is a clear testimony to the uniqueness of our NK-cell platform and the rapid success of Kiadis’ transformation. The Kiadis Boards unanimously believe that Sanofi has the resources and financial strength to accelerate development of our NK-cell products, to the benefit of patients,” said Arthur Lahr, chief scientific officer of Kiadis.

“We believe this transaction represents compelling value to shareholders and offers a fair reflection of the potential of our platform and pipeline, given the risk/reward profile typical to biotech and the capital required to execute our business plan.”

Through Sanofi’s acquisition of Kiadis, the company can enhance its multiple myeloma drug, Sarclisa, which reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 47 percent compared to standard care compared to patients with relapsed multiple myeloma in a June clinical trial.

Back in July, Sanofi licensed Kiadis’ pre-clinical K-NK004 program for potential combination for multiple myeloma.

Other pipeline products included K-NK002 a Phase 2 clinical trial for the prevention of post-transplant relapse in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes and K-NK003, a Phase 1 study evaluating NK-cells for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia

Additionally, KNK-ID-10 is a program currently investigating the properties of K-NK cells and their suitability to fight COVID-19, with the option to develop K-NK cells as a post-exposure pre-emptive therapy for high-risk patients, Sanofi said. 

Currently, there are 362 investigational cell and gene therapies currently in clinical development, a 20 percent increase from 2018, according to a March report from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

Current cancer immunotherapy approaches focus on T cell mediated anti-tumor immunity, including checkpoint inhibition and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.

NK cells are a group of lymphocytes, or white blood cells, that are vital to the immune system. When combined, NK and T cells can attack cancer cells but have different tools for destroying tumor cells. 

Therefore, activated and targeted NK cells may uncover a different approach that could be complementary to T-cell mediated anti-tumor strategies.

At the end of April, three top pharmaceutical companies, Gilead Sciences, Kite, and oNKo-innate, formed a partnership to support the discovery and development of next-generation cancer immunotherapies. 

Gilead will leverage oNKo’s genome-wide screening techniques and its technology platform to discover novel immune cell targets that enhance NK cell anti-tumor immunity and create cell therapies. 

Biopharmaceutical Kite focuses on chimeric antigen receptor and T cell receptor engineered cell therapies. oNKo-innate will create and evaluate NK constructs for Kite’s development of next-generation cell therapies.