Sanofi will buy Bioverativ Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for hemophilia and other rare blood disorders, for $11,6 billion.
The two companies said that Sanofi will buy all of the outstanding shares of Bioverativ for $105 per share in cash. According to the press release by Sanofi, the transaction was unanimously approved by both the Sanofi and Bioverativ.
Sanofi expects to improve its presence in specialty care and leadership in rare diseases, in line with its 2020 Roadmap, it said. The new purchace creates creates a platform for growth in other rare blood disorders for Sanofi. The French drugmaker’s CEO Olivier Brandicourt said that this is a great opportunity to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide, building on Bioverativ’s success in driving new standards of care with its extended half-life factor replacement therapies. “Combined, we will continue to leverage our scientific know-how, disciplined focus and development expertise that best position us to drive value for our shareholders and create breakthrough treatments for patients,” Brandicourt has said in the comment.
Bioverativ Chief Executive Officer, John Cox, said: “Bioverativ was created to bring meaningful progress to people living with hemophilia and other rare blood disorders, and I am extremely proud of the accomplishments we’ve made toward that mission over the past year. We have expanded upon the success of Eloctate and Alprolix, which are making a difference in the lives of people with hemophilia every day, and built a pipeline of novel programs for people with rare blood disorders. Sanofi brings proven capabilities and a global infrastructure, which we believe will help to more rapidly expand access to our medicines globally and further our mission of transforming the lives of people with rare blood disorders. Our Chairman, Brian Posner, our entire Board and I strongly believed our spin-off would create meaningful value for shareholders, and this transaction delivers tremendous value for the shareholders who have invested in and supported our mission.”
With approximately $10 billion in annual sales and 181,000 people affected worldwide, hemophilia represents the largest market for rare diseases and is expected to grow above 7% per year through 2022, the sanofi said. Treatment options for patients are shaped by shifting standards of care worldwide and include prophylaxis and extended half-life products, and the development and adoption of innovative therapies.
Bioverativ’s extended half-life therapies, Eloctate [Antihemophilic Factor VIII (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein] and Alprolix [Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein] for the treatment of hemophilia A and B, respectively, represented the first major advancements in the hemophilia market in nearly two decades when launched. In 2016, Bioverativ generated $847 million in sales and $41 million in royalties.
Bioverativ currently markets the two products in the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia, and plans to expand into additional geographies. The therapies are also commercialized in the European Union and other countries under a collaboration agreement.
Sanofi said that it believes factor replacement therapy will remain the standard of care in hemophilia for many years due to excellent safety and its increasingly superior long-acting profile. Sanofi will be able to leverage Bioverativ’s clinical expertise and existing commercial platform to advance fitusiran, an investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic for hemophilia A and B, with or without inhibitors. Sanofi recently announced a restructuring of its rare disease alliance with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, with Sanofi obtaining global development and commercialization rights to fitusiran.