Sanofi agrees to pay Regeneron $1 billion upfront to expand immunology alliance
The deal adds four antibody candidates to the companies' partnership and settles litigation between them, Reuters reported.
Published
Sanofi has agreed to pay Regeneron $1 billion upfront, with up to $7 billion more in potential milestones, under a sixth amendment to their long-running collaboration, according to a Sanofi filing. The companies will split development and commercialisation costs and share profits from the new programmes 50:50 worldwide, with Regeneron leading research and Sanofi leading global sales. Their existing profit-sharing arrangement on Dupixent, which more than 1.5 million patients now take across nine approved uses, is unchanged.
The amendment adds four long-acting antibodies aimed at type 2 inflammation, a pathway involved in conditions such as asthma and eczema. One of them, REGN20423, is already in early testing for atopic dermatitis; the other three are expected to start clinical trials in 2027. Regeneron also gets the option to bring Sanofi's experimental drug lunsekimig into the alliance once its late-stage COPD trials are complete.
Reuters reported that the agreement, announced on October 1, also resolves prior litigation between the two companies and addresses investor concern over Dupixent's patent protection, which expires in 2031. Sanofi shares rose 2% in early trading that day, Reuters reported.
The new terms mark the sixth revision to a partnership the companies have kept rewriting rather than wind down, a sign both see continuing value in the underlying immunology franchise. A $1 billion upfront payment is a large sum for an amendment rather than a new programme, and points to meaningful shifts in how revenue, costs or rights tied to the collaboration's products will be shared. It also follows Sanofi's separate spending on flu vaccine capacity, part of a broader pattern of the company committing capital across several fronts at once. The size of the payment is likely to keep attention on exactly which rights moved in Regeneron's favour under the new terms.