By John Carroll India’s biotech companies are beginning to make their mark in the antibody development field. Sanofi has inked a $663 million development pact with India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, proffering $50 million in coming months along with a promise of up to $613 million more in milestones to gain rights to an experimental MS drug. In return …
By John Carroll Sanofi-Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher (photo) took the podium at an MIT event to lay out the pharma company’s R&D strategy, once again voicing his displeasure with big internal research operations and laying out a new approach to investing in small biotech companies. “My goal as CEO is never to inaugurate a new …
By Maureen Martino Sanofi-Aventis R&D chief Marc Cluzel said last year that his company plans to focus on diabetes, cancer and ophthalmology drugs. Today, the company unveiled two deals that fit with that strategy. First, the Sanofi is teaming with Columbia University Medical Center to develop new diabetes treatments. The three-year deal will examine the role …
By Maureen Martino France’s Genfit has inked an R&D deal with Sanofi-Aventis worth up to $54 million in milestone payments. The two developers will work together to identify molecules that could treat heart conditions associated with metabolic diseases. Sanofi will get exclusive worldwide rights to any molecules resulting from the research collaboration. Genfit gets annual payments and could …
By Maureen Martino Sanofi-Aventis is considering four deals for eye-drug for a total of €1 billion ($1.36 billion) in possible acquisitions, French newspaper Les Echos reports. Three of the potential deals are for ophthalmology assets based in the U.S., while the fourth is in Israel. “The sum would be spread over three years, as the transactions …
By John Carroll Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter took up a favorite topic of his during a speech in London, highlighting the problems that bedevil the R&D field and offering some ideas on how they can be fixed. “Our industry is taking too long, we’re spending too much, and we’re producing far too little,” he …
By Liz Jones Hollis Sanofi-Aventis and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have formed two R&D collaborations to advance innovation from the lab to the patient. The first collaboration promotes research in pharmacological science and in multiple therapeutic areas, such as oncology, aging, diabetes and inflammation. The second is an oncology partnership that will focus on …
By Maureen Martino The dealmaking machine that is Sanofi-Aventis ($SNY) is at it again, signing an oncology drug pact worth $40 million up front and up to $154 million in milestone payments per program. Overall, the deal is valued at $800 million. Avila was founded in 2006 and already has 28 employees. And CEO Katrine Bosley, who …
By John Carroll Sanofi-Aventis is going to Harvard this fall for some post-grad work in drug development. The Big Pharma company–which has been trumpeting its intention to partner up with academics and biotech companies rather than rely entirely on its own in-house research–and the Ivy League institution announced a research pact this morning, with a …
By John Carroll With all the buzz last week about Sanofi’s new Covance deal and its ongoing struggle to gain control of Genzyme, it was easy to overlook CEO Chris Viehbacher’s pipeline review for the Big Pharma company. Viehbacher has been engaged in a head-to-toe revamp of R&D from his first day at the helm. Late last …
