Sanofi draws up $9.1bn plan to buy Blueprint Meds

Sanofi has bolstered its rare disease business with an agreement to buy Blueprint Medicines and its approved therapy for the blood disorder advanced systemic mastocytosis (ASM).

If it goes through, the takeover will give Sanofi rights to Ayvakit/Ayvakyt (avapritinib), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that targets the KIT D816V mutation in ASM, an umbrella term that covers multiple disorders including aggressive systemic mastocytosis, systemic mastocytosis with an associated haematological neoplasm (SM-AHN), and mast cell leukaemia (MCL).

Ayvakit is the only approved medicine for ASM, which causes symptoms like itching, fever, abdominal pain, and nausea, and can also lead to organ damage, bone fractures, and anaemia. People with ASM typically have a life expectancy ranging from six months to around three-and-a-half years.

The acquisition, which also includes a pipeline of drugs headed by ASM follow-up elenestinib in phase 3 testing and wild-type KIT inhibitor BLU-808, "represents a strategic step forward in our rare and immunology portfolios," said Sanofi's chief executive, Paul Hudson. "It enhances our pipeline and accelerates our transformation into the world's leading immunology company."

The $129-per-share, all-cash deal also includes a pair of additional contingent value rights, worth $2 and $4 apiece, that respectively cover development and regulatory milestones for BLU-808, which is in early clinical development for chronic urticaria and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and is also being studied for allergic asthma and mast cell activation syndrome.

Assuming BLU-808 meets those targets, the total value of the transaction would grow to around $9.5 billion, according to Sanofi.

Hudson has previously said he was looking for M&A deals this year to shore up its already-strong position in immunology, driven by $14 billion-plus blockbuster Dupixent (dupilumab), with the help of €10 billion ($11/4 billion) in proceeds from the sale of its controlling stake in consumer healthcare business Opella, which closed last month.

"Sanofi still retains a sizeable capacity for further acquisitions," said the CEO, who noted that the deal "complements recent acquisitions of early-stage medicines that remain our main field of interest." Just last week, the French group agreed to buy Vigil Neuroscience and its TREM2 drug candidate for Alzheimer's disease for around $470 million.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Blueprint recorded nearly $150 million in Ayvakit revenues in the first quarter of this year and has said it is expecting full-year sales to be up to $720 million en route to $2 billion or more by the end of the decade.

The company's CEO, Kate Haviland, said that Sanofi's "exceptional leadership in rare disease and immunology" makes it an ideal acquirer, and the deal marks a "new chapter" for Blueprint.