Sanofi links with Regeneron in $2.2 billion cancer drug push

[IceWizard]

Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:44am EDT

(Reuters) -
French drugmaker Sanofi (SASY.PA) said on Tuesday it was committing up to $2.17 billion to a collaboration with its long-time partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals(REGN.O) in the hot area of cancer immunotherapy.

Sanofi will make an upfront payment of $640
million to Regeneron and the U.S. biotech
company will get up to $375 million more if
certain sales targets are hit.

Sanofi will also invest more than $1 billion in research for the program, which aims to tap the body's immune system to help fight cancer.
As part of the agreement, the two companies
will jointly develop a programed cell death
protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor currently in Phase I
clinical testing, and plan to start trials in 2016
with new drug candidates.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by David
Clarke)