Sanofi and BioNTech A.G. have entered into a multiyear exclusive collaboration and license agreement. This research collaboration will leverage the scientific expertise of the two organizations to discover and develop up to five cancer immunotherapies, each consisting of a mixture of synthetic messenger RNAs (mRNAs).
Sanofi and BioNTech have agreed to $60 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments, payable to BioNTech under the terms of the agreement, according to a press release. Further, BioNTech could receive over $300 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones and other payments per product. If commercialized successfully, BioNTech would also be eligible for tiered royalties on net sales up to double digits, the release said.
“Immunotherapy has shown promise as an avenue to develop potentially curative treatments for people with cancer, and Sanofi has strategically launched a number of inter-company collaborations in this area in recent months,” said Elias Zerhouni, President, Global R&D at Sanofi. “Our collaboration with BioNTech has the potential to lay the foundation for a unique therapeutic modality in immuno-oncology.”
“The collaboration with Sanofi is groundbreaking: through using our broad suite of mRNA technologies and extensive tumor immunology understanding, it will allow us to develop a completely new class of cancer immune-therapeutics with Sanofi, which we believe will have a profound and deep impact on the treatment of cancer,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech.
