Sanofi and UCB have announced a new partnership that will see the companies research and develop new medicines together.

Paris, March 12, 2014: Specifically, the collaboration will look at anti-inflammatory small molecules that have the potential to treat a wide range of immune-mediated diseases in areas such as gastroenterology and arthritis.

The terms of the agreement see Sanofi and Belgium-based UCB sharing costs and profits on a 50/50 basis. UCB will be entitled to initial pre-clinical and clinical development milestone payments upfront from Sanofi, potentially exceeding €100 million ($139 million).

There is already a large and competitive market for these types of medicines – notably in arthritis, which sees some of the biggest-selling treatments in the world catering for the disease.

But the two firms will hope that they can still edge their way into the field and gain some share.

UCB already has its arthritis treatment Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) pulling in healthy revenue, which analysts believe should bring in sales of around €1.5 billion at its peak (with additional licences).

Sanofi on the other hand has predominately focussed on heart drugs, multiple sclerosis, cancer medicines and treatments for rare diseases, especially since its purchase of Genzyme in 2011.

For Sanofi this partnership will enable it to use the established R&D pathways of UCB to develop these auto-immune medicines, whilst exploiting its own global clout and financial backing to help sell them – should they gain approval.

Ismail Kola, president of UCB’s NewMedicines [sic] unit, said: “We partner Sanofi’s significant expertise, strong capabilities and resources with UCB’s cutting-edge research skills and breakthrough innovations.

“Together we can maximise the opportunity to treat diseases currently treated by biologic agents with small molecules and thus benefit millions of people suffering from severe diseases.”

UCB NewMedicines, the research arm of UCB, said that a ‘dedicated team of scientists’ will be formed under the leadership of Sanofi and itself, and will join forces in a discovery and development based collaboration to characterise and identify new potential therapies.

“Immune-mediated diseases affect individuals, families, and communities and impact the economies of countries and nations, making this poorly understood category of diseases a significant public health burden,” said Dr Elias Zerhouni, president of global R&D at Sanofi.

“Joining efforts with UCB, we will address a scientific challenge in immunology, and increase the chances of accelerating the discovery and development of future therapies.”

New deals

UCB has been increasingly looking towards partnerships of recent years, and in January launched a new online campaign to allow the public to help them develop new medicines.

Sanofi too has been looking outside of its walls for deals, with many in recent months revolving around syndicates on rare diseases.

Deals between one big pharma company and a second a small-to-mid range firm seem to be a growing trend within the industry. Big pharma is finding it more difficult to create the next innovation in-house. It has the money and the reach, but not always the innovation in its research centres.

The opposite is generally true for smaller firms like UCB who have the ideas, but not the money to always progress medicines on its own.

Agreements such as the one announced today are the result of these dilemmas, and are indicative of the industry’s desire to de-risk. Pharma File