Sanofi offloads drug programmes to MyoKardia and Acer Therapeutics

Sanofi has returned worldwide rights to all programmes that were covered under a licence and collaboration agreement signed with biopharmaceutical company MyoKardia in 2014.

The initial research term, which ended on 31 December 2018, will not be extended.

The Sanofi and MyoKardia alliance focused on the discovery and clinical development of up to three drug programmes to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

So far, MyoKardia received around $230m in funding from Sanofi. The company advanced its mavacamten product from preclinical development into a late-stage pivotal study for HCM, and MYK-491 candidate from discovery to a Phase II proof-of-concept study in DCM patients.

Following the conclusion of the collaboration with Sanofi, MyoKardia now holds global rights to all programmes in its portfolio, including mavacamten and MYK-491.

MyoKardia CEO Tassos Gianakakos said: "Regaining worldwide rights enables us to capture the full value of the data being generated in the next 12-24 months as we prepare for the potential registration of mavacamten in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and obtain proof-of-concept for MYK-491 in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

"Regaining worldwide rights enables us to capture the full value of the data being generated in the next 12-24 months as we prepare for the potential registration of mavacamten and obtain proof-of-concept for MYK-491."

"Importantly, consolidated control over our entire portfolio allows us to make decisions about how we advance each of our therapeutic candidates in alignment with our precision medicine approach."

Furthermore, Sanofi has also out-licensed worldwide rights to a clinical-stage product called osanetant under an exclusive licence agreement with Acer Therapeutics.

Osanetant is a selective, non-peptide tachykinin NK3 receptor antagonist to be developed as a treatment for some neuroendocrine-related diseases.

Sanofi Business Development and Licensing global head Alban De-La-Sabliere said: "We are pleased to sign this agreement with Acer, which illustrates our strategy of collaborating with partners who bring a credible repurposing strategy to non-core molecules in our broad portfolio.

"By providing access to these select R&D programmes, we can continue to support efforts to address a serious unmet medical need."

Financial terms of the agreement have not been divulged by Acer Therapeutics and Sanofi.

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