Sanofi and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft aim to create new antibiotics to fight infectious diseases

French drug major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) and the European research organization Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have announced the creation of a natural product center of excellence to accelerate the discovery of new therapies to treat infectious diseases.

Under the agreement, Sanofi and Fraunhofer IME (Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology) will collaborate to identify and optimize novel naturally occurring chemical or biological compounds, mainly in the field of infectious diseases. The approach may also be extended to other indications such as diabetes, pain and rare diseases, where natural products-derived substances have proven to play an important role in treatment and disease prevention. Sanofi will share its strain collection, one of the world's largest, consisting of more than 100,000 different micro-organisms, with Fraunhofer.

Elias Zerhouni, Sanofi’s president of global R&D, said: “There is a great medical need in fighting infectious diseases globally. This is critical given the rise of antibiotic resistance worldwide especially in the hospital setting with increasingly frequent serious, often life-threatening infections, where few advances have been made in the recent years. This cooperation with Fraunhofer is unique as internal and external scientists will work together as one team on common projects, in shared labs to acquire new knowledge with the objective to bring new medicines to patients suffering from infectious diseases.”