LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - French pharmaceuticals group Sanofi has agreed to buy US clinical stage mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio in a $3.2bn deal.
Sanofi said the acquisition was part of its "endeavour to accelerate the application of messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop therapeutics and vaccines".

Under the terms of the deal, Sanofi will pay $38 per share in cash.

Sanofi has already partnered with Translate Bio. In June 2018, the two companies entered into a collaboration and exclusive license agreement to develop mRNA vaccines, which was further expanded in 2020 to broadly address current and future infectious diseases.

There are two ongoing mRNA vaccine clinical trials under the collaboration, the Covid-19 vaccine Phase 1/2 study, with results expected in the third quarter, and the mRNA seasonal influenza vaccine Phase 1 trial, with results due in the fourth quarter.

Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said: "Translate Bio adds an mRNA technology platform and strong capabilities to our research, further advancing our ability to explore the promise of this technology to develop both best-in-class vaccines and therapeutics.

"A fully owned platform allows us to develop additional opportunities in the fast-evolving mRNA space. We will also be able to accelerate our existing partnered programs already under development. Our goal is to unlock the potential of mRNA in other strategic areas such as immunology, oncology, and rare diseases in addition to vaccines."

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