Sanofi To Purchase Immune System-Focused Drugmaker Principia Biopharma For $3.7B

Sanofi SA SNY will acquire Principia Biopharma Inc PRNB for $3.68 billion in cash, the two companies announced Monday.

What Happened

Under the agreement, the French drugmaker will purchase all of Principia’s outstanding shares at $100 each, in cash. The boards of the two companies have given their approval for the transaction, the drugmakers said.

The two companies have been cooperating on autoimmune diseases, specifically, a multiple sclerosis treatment termed "BTK inhibitor ‘168," since 2017.

“Full ownership of our brain-penetrant BTK inhibitor '168 removes complexities for this priority development program and simplifies future commercialization,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a statement.

The Paris-based drugmaker expects to close the deal by the end of this year.

Why It Matters

Sanofi's acquisition of Principia Biopharma would allow the latter to leverage BTK inhibitors for targeting specific organs, according to the San Francisco-based company’s CEO Martin Babler.

In late July, Sanofi SA reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK to supply the United Kingdom with 60 million doses of their jointly-developed COVID-19 vaccine. The companies expect a regulatory approval for the vaccine candidate in the first half of 2021, pending positive clinical data. 

Separately, Sanofi is also collaborating with Translate Bio, Inc TBIO for the development of an RNA vaccine candidate. 

Price Action 

Sanofi shares closed nearly 2% lower at $50.33 on Friday and gained almost 0.2% in the after-hours. Principia shares closed almost 1.1% lower at $90.74 the same day.

Photo courtesy: Sanofi SA via Flickr