Sanofi spending $650 million to acquire US vaccine firm

French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) is back on the takeover track, albeit not a mega bucks deal, announcing this morning that it will acquire Protein Sciences, a privately held US vaccines biotechnology company based in Meriden, Connecticut.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi will make an upfront payment of $650 million and pay up to $100 million upon achievement of certain milestones. The acquisition, which has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Protein Sciences and a majority of Protein Sciences shareholders, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Protein Sciences received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in October 2016 for its Flublok Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine (QIV). Flublok is the only recombinant protein-based influenza vaccine approved by the FDA.