Sanofi To Pay MannKind Corporation Up To $925 Million For Inhaled Insulin
August 11, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Sanofi and Mannkind Corporation announced they had entered into a collaboration and license agreement to commercialize Afrezza® Inhalation Powder, a recently FDA-approved insulin therapy. Afrezza is a dry formulation of human insulin that the patient takes via a small inhaler. It is administered at the beginning of a meal and dissolves quickly during inhalation to the deep lungs and subsequently rapidly delivers insulin to the bloodstream. It has been approved for use in adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
The deal calls for MannKind Corporation to receive an upfront payment of $150 million with various milestones that could rise to $775 million dependent upon regulatory and development targets in addition to sales goals. The two companies will share profits and losses globally with Sanofi retaining 65% and MannKind 35%. As part of the deal, Sanofi agreed to advance up to $175 million to MannKind as a share of the collaboration’s expenses.
Sanofi is a leader in diabetes treatments, drug delivery systems and blood glucose monitoring devices. MannKind Corporation focuses on therapeutic discovery and development, especially utilizing their proprietary Technosphere® formulation technology, which “is based on a class of organic molecules that are designed to self-assemble into small particles onto which drug molecules can be loaded.”
Sanofi has recently been in the news about its leading diabetes product, Lantus. Lantus is the most widely prescribed version of insulin, garnering $7.78 billion in revenue in 2013 alone. Sanofi recently filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly (LLY) for infringing seven patents related to insulin and insulin-injecting devices, which will prevent Lantus’s generic versions from hitting the shelf until at least mid-2016. They also recently announced an improved version of Lantus called Toujeo.
Given the overall revenue of Lantus, the numbers involved in this deal are relatively small. However, given that Lantus’s patent expires in 2015 and it’s only a matter of time before generic versions become available, this deal is a stepping stone in rounding out the company’s diabetes treatment portfolio.
Read more recent deals.
