Sonoma Bio gets $45 million milestone from Regeneron

US clinical-stage biotech Sonoma Biotherapeutics says it has received a $45 million milestone payment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: REGN), under the terms of its active collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize engineered Treg therapies for autoimmune diseases.

“This payment marks a significant milestone in our evolution as a company and our collaboration with Regeneron, which has been going extremely well,” said Jeff Bluestone, chief executive of Sonoma Bio, who noted that “the cutting-edge Regeneron technology for target identification and animal models, combined with Sonoma Bio’s Treg and cell therapy expertise, has enabled an effective collaboration in developing new treatment options for patients suffering from devastating autoimmune diseases.”

In March 2023, Sonoma Bio entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Regeneron to research, develop and commercialize Treg cell therapies for inflammatory bowel disease and two other undisclosed indications, with a Regeneron option for a fifth indication. The collaboration integrates Regeneron’s industry-leading VelociSuite technologies for the discovery and characterization of fully human antibodies and T cell receptors (TCRs) with Sonoma Bio’s pioneering approach to developing and manufacturing gene-modified Treg cell therapies.