Pharmalitet: March 2016

Sanofi may pay Dice Molecules as much as $2.3 billion as France’s largest drugmaker looks to make pills work in place of injections for some diseases.

Sanofi agreed to pay Dice more than $50 million initially to get exclusive access to some of its technology and take an equity stake in the closely held company, which uses smaller chemicals to mimic the effect of drugs that require injections or infusions, according to a statement Wednesday. The companies will work on 12 potential drug targets over five years. Dice stands to get as much as $184 million for each candidate if it meets certain development goals, such as key clinical milestones or a regulatory submission.
Dice aims to make pills that can work in the same fashion as antibodies, large proteins that companies make by splicing genes into cells and turning them into drug factories. But because antibodies are so large and complex, they often need to be kept at low temperatures and given by injection, constraints small molecules such as Dice’s might avoid.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/sanofi-offers-dice-billions-to-replace-injections-with-pills