KEY TAKEAWAYS
- French drugmaker Sanofi said Monday it has agreed to acquire Blueprint Medicines for up to $9.5 billion, sending shares of the Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharma firm soaring in premarket trading.
- The deal expands Sanofi’s immunology pipeline and access to drugs to treat systemic mastocytosis (SM), a rare immunological disease.
- Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said that the French company “still retains a sizeable capacity for further acquisitions.”
French drugmaker Sanofi (SNY) said Monday it has agreed to acquire Blueprint Medicines (BPMC) for up to $9.5 billion, sending shares of the Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharma firm soaring in premarket trading.
The deal expands Sanofi’s immunology pipeline and access to drugs to treat systemic mastocytosis (SM), a rare immunological disease, and “other KIT-driven diseases,” the company said. Sanofi also noted that the acquisition would give it access to rare immunology disease medicine avapritinib, marketed as Ayvakit or Ayvakyt, which has been approved in the U.S. and the European Union (EU).
“The proposed acquisition of Blueprint Medicines represents a strategic step forward in our rare and immunology portfolios,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said, adding that the French company “still retains a sizeable capacity for further acquisitions.”
Under the terms of the Blueprint transaction, Sanofi will pay $129.00 per share in cash or $9.1 billion as well as potential milestone payments. The deal is the latest by the French pharma giant, which last month agreed to buy Alzheimer’s disease drug developer Vigil Neuroscience (VIGL).
Sanofi shares were down slightly in premarket trading Monday but are up 2% year-to-date through Friday. Blueprint shares are gaining 27% in premarket trading and have risen 16% entering Monday.
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