New collaboration between Sanofi and Warp Drive Bio worth over $750 million

French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) has extended and reshaped its existing collaboration utilizing privately-held biotech firm Warp Drive, to use the latter’s proprietary SMART (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) and genome mining platforms to discover novel oncology therapeutics and antibiotics.

Sanofi, which has been a major investor and strategic partner since Warp Drive's inception in 2012, and Warp Drive have entered into a research collaboration and exclusive license focused on the development of drugs targeting important human oncogenes including RAS, which has one of the highest mutation rates in cancer - and new antibiotics targeting Gram-negative bacteria. Warp Drive Bio retains the rights to deploy its platforms to pursue discovery and development against all other targets, both alone and in collaboration with other companies.

The collaboration is an outgrowth of Sanofi's Sunrise initiative, a strategic partnership model that seeks to invest in early stage opportunities that align with Sanofi's expert development and commercialization abilities.