France's Sanofi to buy U.S. biopharma firm Kadmon in $1.9 bln deal (updated)

Telesis Bio

08/09/2021 06:40

(Adds details, background)
    PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi  SASY.PA 
said on Wednesday it would buy U.S. biopharmaceutical company
Kadmon Holdings  KDMN.O  for 1.9 billion dollars, one month
after announcing the purchase of another US biotech, Translate
Bio  TBIO.O , for $3.2 billion.
    Sanofi said it has offered $9.50 per share in cash for
Kadmon, representing a total equity value of approximately $1.9
billion on a fully diluted basis, and that both companies'
boards unanimously approved the transaction.
    Sanofi's price tag represents a 79% premium on Kadmon's
$5.30 closing price on Tuesday. 
    "The acquisition supports Sanofi's strategy to continue to
grow its general medicines core assets and will immediately add
Rezurock (belumosudil) to its transplant portfolio," the two
companies said in a joint statement.
    Rezurock, a treatment for adult and pediatric patients 12
years and older with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD),
was approved in July by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration
(FDA).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2OS3EJ
    "Kadmon's pipeline includes drug candidates for immune and
fibrotic diseases as well as immuno-oncology therapies", the
companies said.
    Sanofi is under pressure to revive its drug pipeline and is
also eager to overcome setbacks in the COVID-19 vaccine race.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2PB3OP
    The Kadmon transaction is expected to be modestly dilutive
to Sanofi's EPS in 2022.
    At Tuesday's closing price of 86,95 euros, Sanofi's share
price is up 10.5% since the start of the year, underperforming a
Stoxx 600 Europe health care index  .SXDP  that has risen 18%
during that time.

 (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten;
Editing by Christopher Cushing & Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((sudip.kargupta@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 53 84;))