Kiadis Pharma, a European biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Amsterdam, with Sanofi, announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement, valued at EUR 308 Mn. Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi offered to purchase all shares of Kiadis Pharma at EUR 5.45 in cash and the acquisition is expected to be completed by the first half of 2021.
Kiadis developed an innovative Natural Killer (NK) cell-based medicine for the treatment of life-threatening diseases. Its proprietary platform uses NK cells from healthy donors, seeks and identifies malignant cancer cells to destroy them. The proprietary platform has potential for a wide range of applications, including liquid and solid tumours.
The acquisition will give Sanofi full rights over the “Off-the-shelf” natural killer (K-NK) cell platform, which consists of allogenic NK cells from healthy donors and a pipeline of cell–based cancer immune therapeutics and infectious disease treatments. Its pipeline of NK cell therapy comprises of:
- K-NK002, in Phase II, under evaluation for prevention of post-transplant relapse in patient with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic syndromes.
- K-NK003, a Phase I investigational product, under evaluation for patients with relapsed or refractory AML.
- KNK-ID-101, a program which evaluates the properties of K-NK cells for their suitability to fight SARS-CoV-2 to develop post-exposure pre-emptive therapy for COVID-19 in high-risk patients.
Earlier in July 2020, Sanofi licensed Kiadis Pharma’s investigational candidate K-NK004 in combination with its CD38 inhibitor, Sarclisa, for multiple myeloma. This acquisition allows Sanofi to synergize and strengthen its emerging immune-oncology pipeline and provides a competitive edge over others in the field. Furthermore, the R&D and commercial expertise of Sanofi will help Kiadis advance its pipeline.