An existing partnership between vaccine company Sanofi Pasteur and clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio expanded this week to include development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases.
The companies originally began collaborating in 2018. Now, their union will focus on broadly addressing current and future diseases. As part of this, Translate Bio will receive $425 million upfront and common stock equity investment, and over time, could receive up to $1.9 billion for potential milestones, payments and tiered royalties based on worldwide sales of any developed vaccines. In return, Sanofi will gain exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize vaccines using Translate Bio technology worldwide.
“As all eyes are on prevention of infectious disease through vaccines, this is a pointed moment in time where we are called upon to seek innovative ways to protect public health,” Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president at Sanofi Pasteur, said. “We are excited by the novel technology and expertise Translate Bio brings, and we believe that adding this mRNA platform to our vaccines development capabilities will help us advance prevention against current and future infectious diseases.”
During the collaboration term, Sanofi will take on all costs and push further development. Translate Bio will meanwhile use its mRNA platform to discover, design, and produce vaccine candidates. Technology and processes will be transferred to Sanofi for development and manufacturing.
“We are excited to work with Sanofi in this broadened capacity with the goal of ultimately delivering vaccines on a global scale, a need underscored by the current pandemic,” Ronald Renaud, CEO of Translate Bio, said. “Translate Bio will also be well-positioned financially to continue to build upon our internal capabilities with a focus on advancing innovations in platform discovery and on the development of ongoing and additional preclinical therapeutic programs as we aim to bring multiple programs towards clinical development.”
The pair are currently analyzing several COVID-19 vaccine candidates on live organisms, to establish immunogenicity and neutralizing antibody activity. They hope to begin the first in-human clinical trial by the fourth quarter of 2020. Other candidates under development include an influenza vaccine.