Sanofi, Selecta sign $900m deal to develop food allergy therapies

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

Sanofi has entered into a strategic global collaboration with Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical US company that is developing a new class of synthetic vaccines and immunotherapies. The collaboration’s aim is to discover highly targeted, antigen-specific immunotherapies for life-threatening allergies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi is to obtain an exclusive license to develop a first food allergy therapy, with the option to develop two additional candidate immunotherapies for food allergies. Selecta is eligible to receive several pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and sales milestones totally US $300 million per allergen indication for up to three immunotherapy candidates contemplated by this collaboration.

“We are very pleased that Sanofi, a global leader in vaccines and immunology is entering into a partnership with Selecta to develop and commercialize products from our immunotherapy platform. In allergies, as well as auto-immune diseases, organ transplantation, and protein replacement therapies, there is a lack of specific, effective and safe treatments to prevent undesired immune reactions. Selecta’s SVP technology can restore balance to dysregulated immune systems by producing immune tolerance to specific antigens. Our approach addresses the underlying causes of these diseases and thereby makes advances beyond today’s symptomatic treatments and allergen avoidance strategies."

Werner Cautreels, PhD, Selecta’s President and CEO.

As part of the research alliance, Sanofi and Selecta will work together to design antigen-specific immunotherapies that meet unmet needs as defined by the French drugmaker, Sanofi, for applications where Selecta’s Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) platform technology can offer a new therapeutic approach for life-threatening and other severe allergies.