Sanofi Bets Big On mRNA Push With Translate Bio Acquisition For $3.2B: Highlights

A year after paying Translate Bio Inc TBIO a whopping $425 million to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases, including COVID-19, Sanofi SA SNY has announced a $3.2 billion buyout for Translate Bio.
Sanofi will pay $38 in cash for each of Translate Bio's shares, a 30% premium to Monday's closing price of $29.15.
Sanofi has run into a vortex of issues trying to develop a more traditional vaccine against COVID-19, a situation that forced the pharma to restart its R&D engine after an initial failure.
Sanofi recently announced to invest billions of dollars to build out its "end-to-end" internal capabilities in mRNA technology.
Today's news fits in neatly with that strategic priority. The messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) approach instruct human cells to make specific proteins that produce an immune response to a given disease.
Sanofi and Translate Bio have been working together since 2018 and joined forces last year to develop an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.
The Phase 1/2 trial was initiated in March, and interim results are expected in Q3 of 2021.
The Companies recently launched an influenza vaccine trial, with interim data from the trial expected in Q4 of 2021.
Translate Bio, set up in 2016, has not launched any drugs on the market. Still, its clinical-stage pulmonary product using its mRNA platform is being tested as an inhaled treatment for cystic fibrosis in a Phase 1/2 trial.
Price Action: TBIO shares are up 29.3% at $37.70, and SNY stock is up 0.3% at $51.76 during the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.
Image by Wilfried Pohnke from Pixabay

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