Sanofi and Hanmi Pharmaceutical to develop new diabetes therapies

Sanofi has announced a new diabetes research deal with Hanmi Pharmaceutical, focusing on the development of long-acting therapies.

Hanmi will receive an upfront payment of 400 million euros (286.73 billion pounds) and is eligible for up to 3.5 billion euros in development, registration and sales milestones, as well as double-digit royalties on net sales.

Sanofi, meanwhile, will obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialise the GLP1-RA therapy efpeglenatide, as well as a weekly insulin and a fixed-dosed weekly GLP-1-RA/insulin drug combination.

Developed under the Quantum Project, these offerings will utilise Hanmi's proprietary long-acting protein/peptide discovery platform LAPSCOVERY and will form the basis of a new portfolio of experimental, long-acting diabetes treatments.

Pascale Witz, executive vice-president at Sanofi, who will lead its new global diabetes and cardiovascular care business unit, said: "The agreement to develop these three investigational diabetes medicines confirms Sanofi's long-term commitment to people with this disease."

This comes after the company announced a new cancer immunotherapy collaboration with BioNTech earlier this week.