Sanofi-aventis announces collaboration with Regeneron

Sanofi-aventis has revealed plans to collaborate with Regeneron to expand their joint portfolio of antibody products.

The two organisations will cooperate to discover, develop and commercialise fully-human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Sanofi-aventis will increase its annual funding from $100 million (59.7 million pounds) to $160 million as of next year.

Overall, the firms are aiming to submit an average of four to five antibodies for clinical trials annually.

Leonard Schleifer, president and chief executive officer of Regeneron, explained: “The expansion of our collaboration provides even greater resources over a longer time horizon and will boost our efforts to build a deep pipeline of new human antibody product candidates.”

In other Sanofi-aventis news, the firm revealed last week that it had performed well during the third quarter of 2009, as its net sales reached 7,400 million euros (6.631 million pounds).