Sanofi and Innate Pharma expand collaboration

Shares of Innate Pharma (Euronext Paris: IPH) were almost 14% higher at 2.34 euros by late morning on the news that it has expanded its collaboration with fellow France-based pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN), licensing a natural killer (NK) cell engager program targeting B7H3 from Innate’s ANKET (Antibody-based NK Cell Engager Therapeutics) platform.

Sanofi will also have the option to add up to two additional ANKET targets and, following target selection, Sanofi will be responsible for all development, manufacturing and commercialization.

The companies signed their first NK cell engagers deal in 2016 for the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific NK cell engagers, which are currently being evaluated by Sanofi’s R&D team, with one of these molecules already in clinical studies. In July this year, Sanofi made the decision to progress IPH6401/SAR’514 into investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies, triggering an around $3 million milestone payment.