Sanofi Inks $1.9B Deal With Dren Bio to Buy Autoimmune Disease Drug

Sanofi SNY announced that it signed an agreement with California-based privately held biopharmaceutical company Dren Bio to acquire the latter’s investigational bispecific antibody DR-0201.

DR-0201 is a CD20-directed bispecific myeloid cell engager designed to induce deep B-cell depletion. Dren Bio is currently evaluating the drug in two ongoing early-stage studies — B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and autoimmune diseases.

Sanofi believes that DR-0201 has the potential to reset the immune system, which can lead to sustained treatment-free remission in patients with refractory B-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, like lupus. The company’s decision to acquire DR-0201 stems from the deep and robust B-cell depletion response seen across ‘pre-clinical and early clinical studies.’

Per the terms of the deal, Sanofi will pay $600 million as an upfront payment to Dren Bio. The California-based company will also be eligible to receive up to $1.3 billion in potential milestone payments. The transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, will be financed by Sanofi using its available cash resources.

Founded in 2019, Dren Bio has been garnering interest from big pharma for its proprietary bispecific antibody-based technology. In the last three years, this biopharmaceutical company already has signed multi-billion dollar partnerships with bigwigs Novartis NVS and Pfizer PFE for novel cancer therapies. While the PFE deal is valued at more than a billion dollars, the NVS deal is valued at about $3 billion.

SNY Stock Price Performance

Year to date, Sanofi’s shares have risen nearly 22% compared with the industry’s 7% growth.

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What's Sanofi’s Intent Behind the Deal?

Through this deal, SNY intends to expand its immunology pipeline and establish itself as a ‘leading immunology company.’ It has a strong immunology and neuro-inflammation pipeline, which includes 12 potential blockbuster assets in phase III development, including amlitelimab, frexalimab and tolebrutinib.

The potential success in the development of the above candidates will help the company narrow its dependence on the blockbuster immunology drug Dupixent, which is marketed in collaboration with Regeneron REGN. This drug is currently a key top-line driver for both SNY and REGN. In 2024, Sanofi recorded more than €13 billion from Dupixent product sales, indicating 23% year-over-year growth. The reported Dupixent sales figure accounted for about a third of the company’s total 2024 revenues.

Sanofi is also investing in the launches of its new products to optimize its success. It believes that its three new products launched/added in 2023, Altuviiio (for hemophilia A), Beyfortus (for RSV) and Tzield (for type 1 diabetes), together can add up to at least €5 billion in peak sales. Beyfortus achieved blockbuster sales in its first full year of sales in 2024. Altuviiio is expected to achieve blockbuster sales in 2025.

SNY’s Zacks Ranks

Sanofi currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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