Deal finally signed to transfer Sanofi anti-infectives unit to Evotec

Evotec says the deal that has finally been signed to transfer the Sanofi anti-infectives unit includes “specific long-term commitments of employment,” (five-year employment contracts according to some reports), following negotiations with France’s unions and government officials over the security of French jobs under Evotec. Over 10 infectious disease R&D programmes will be transferred to Evotec, mostly in the discovery or preclinical stages, together with approximately 100 staff at Sanofi’s Lyons site. Evotec wants the unit to become an open science focal point, bringing together other “companies, foundations, academia, and government agencies”.

Sanofi says it will provide “significant” ongoing support including an initial €60m funding. It wants to keep the door open to develop and commercialise any potential product candidates from its contributed projects. Its vaccines unit was not part of the deal.

Evotec’s CEO Dr Werner Lanthaler said they will have around 180 scientists working in this area and that will give it “the highest qualified translational footprint in infectious disease research globally.” It will focus initially on antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections, tuberculosis, and malaria, as well as new-mechanism antiviral drugs.

Evotec’s chief scientific officer Cord Dohrmann said that the new R&D unit will have “one of the largest infectious disease drug discovery platforms and pipelines [with] over 20 projects” mainly in antimicrobial and antiviral therapy.