Sanofi enters into licensing deal for BND-22

In an active start to the new year, French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) yesterday announced a new licensing deal, adding to its planned $1.45 billion acquisition of UK biotech firm Kymab announced earlier this week.

Sanofi is linking up with privately-held Israeli company Biond Biologics, signing an exclusive worldwide license agreement for the development and commercialization of cancer drug candidate BND-22.

BND-22 is a humanized IgG4, antagonist antibody targeting the Ig-like transcript 2 (ILT2) receptor in development for the treatment of solid tumors. ILT2, a member of the ILT family of immuno-modulating receptors, is an inhibitory receptor expressed on both innate and adaptive immune cells that binds MHC class I molecules including HLA-G, an immunosuppressive protein expressed by multiple tumor types.