French pharma giant Sanofi is further strengthening the growth of its transplant business with the acquisition of Kadmon Holdings, a US biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and markets transformative therapies for disease areas of significant unmet medical needs.
The acquisition supports Sanofi’s strategy to continue to grow its General Medicines core assets and will immediately add Rezurock (belumosudil) to its transplant portfolio.
Rezurock is a recently FDA-approved, first-in-class treatment for chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) for adult and paediatric patients 12 years and older who have failed at least two prior lines of systemic therapy.
Shareholders of Kadmon common stock will receive $9.50 per share in cash, which represents a total equity value of approximately $1.9 billion (on a fully diluted basis).
“We are transforming and simplifying our General Medicines business and have shifted our focus on differentiated core assets in key markets,” said Olivier Charmeil, Executive Vice President General Medicines.
“We are thrilled to add Kadmon’s Rezurock to our well-established transplant portfolio. Our existing scale, expertise, and relationships in transplant create an ideal platform to achieve the full potential of Rezurock, which will address the significant unmet medical needs of patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease around the world.”
Harlan Waksal, President and CEO of Kadmon, added: “By leveraging Sanofi’s global resources and long-standing expertise in developing and commercializing innovative medicines, Rezurock is now well positioned for global accessibility, faster.”
Sanofi’s transplant business mainly consists of Thymoglobulin (anti-thymocyte globulin), a polyclonal, anti-human thymocyte antibody preparation that acts as a broad immunosuppressive and immunomodulating agent and Mozobil (plerixafor), a hematopoietic stem cell mobilizer. Both products are among General Medicines core assets and are currently registered and marketed in more than 65 countries.
