Sanofi has entered into an agreement worth over $427m with Alloy Therapeutics to use the biotech’s antisense platform to develop a central nervous system drug.
The target specific collaboration and licensing deal gives Sanofi access to Alloy’s AntiClastic Antisense platform to develop a genetic medicine capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier.
In exchange, Alloy will receive upfront licence fees and near-term preclinical milestone payments of up to $27.5m and will be eligible for over $400m in discovery, development, and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.
Sanofi is already developing targeted, potentially disease-modifying therapies for patients with neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
Alloy’s platform is designed to overcome the potency and therapeutic index challenges that have historically limited the promise of antisense drugs by reaching intracellular disease targets at the RNA level.
The company launched the platform in 2023 after exclusively licensing its underlying intellectual property developed by Sudhir Agrawal.
“Our work on the AntiClastic Antisense platform and the data generated is pushing the technology beyond current standards and driving innovation that has the potential to redefine what’s possible in RNA therapeutics,” said Vinod Vathipadiekal, chief scientific officer, genetic medicines at Alloy.
Vathipadiekal added: “With the capabilities we have built and validated, we are excited to work with Sanofi, and we look forward to continuing to deliver on Alloy’s commitment to open collaboration and accessible technologies to ensure these breakthroughs can drive the development of superior RNA-based therapies for patients.”
The deal comes just two weeks after Sanofi expanded its agreement with SK bioscience to develop, licence and commercialise next-generation pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) for both paediatric and adult populations. The agreement built on the partners’ existing collaboration to develop and commercialise a 21-valent paediatric PCV, which entered late-stage clinical development last month.
Sanofi also recently partnered with Orano Med to advance the development of next-generation radioligand (RLTs) for rare cancers, following its earlier exclusive licensing agreement with Orano Med and RadioMedix, also to advance RLTs for rare cancers.