Nurix Therapeutics, Inc.

Sanofi has agreed to invest around 15 million euros ($17.1 million) in new shares of Innate Pharma.\n Sanofi is handing back a phase 2-stage natural killer (NK) cell engager and canceling another cancer trial as the Big Pharma refocuses its relationship with Innate Pharma from oncology to autoimmune indications.Sanofi had been assessing a CD123-targeting drug, known as SAR443579 or IPH6101, in a phase 1/2 study for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The Big Pharma unveiled data last year that showed complete responses among five out of 15 patients who received a dose of 1 mg/kg, with three patients demonstrating a “durable” complete responses of more than 10 months.SAR’579 has been in a phase 2 dose-expansion portion of the study for the past year, but Sanofi said this morning that it is handing the drug back to Innate. The two companies will “discuss a transition plan with regard to ongoing studies,” Sanofi explained in an April 23 release.SAR’579 was created with Innate’s NK cell engager platform, dubbed ANKET, and the biopharma will continue to collaborate with the French Big Pharma on a number of other drugs from this source. One of them is a BCMA-targeting NK cell engager called IPH6401, also known as SAR’514.When they signed their initial collaboration back in 2016, the plan was for Sanofi to investigate SAR’514 in multiple myeloma. But the company said Wednesday morning that it will now terminate a phase 1/2 study in this cancer indication and instead refocus the asset toward autoimmune disease.“We acknowledge Sanofi’s portfolio prioritization, and we are encouraged to see our ANKET platform being pursued in autoimmune indications,” Innate’s CEO Jonathan Dickinson said. “We will continue to evaluate, plan and execute next steps for our proprietary ANKET programs in oncology and beyond.” Sanofi also suggested that as part of the amendments to the 2016 agreement, the pharma has agreed to invest about 15 million euros ($17.1 million) in new shares of Innate. However, the exact size of the equity investment “will be determined on the basis of the ongoing market conditions, if they are satisfactory,” the drugmaker said.“We are very pleased that Sanofi has chosen to further strengthen our relationship through a potential strategic equity investment in the company,” Dickinson added in the same release. “This would further validate the innovation and scientific progress at Innate Pharma delivered by our research and development.”The two French companies also have a separate collaboration signed in 2022 to use the ANKET platform to target the glycoprotein B7-H3, which is overexpressed on various solid tumors. This deal is unaffected by today’s news, according to Sanofi.In all, Innate could still receive more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in R&D and commercial milestones from Sanofi should the various bets pay off.Sanofi has been undergoing a major pipeline shake-up in an effort to become “an immunoscience powerhouse,\" according to an internal letter obtained by Fierce Biotech last year.The Big Pharma has been on a spending spree to bolster its autoimmune and immunology pipeline, picking up bispecific antibodies for colitis and Crohn’s disease from Earendil Labs last week, while returning to Nurix earlier this month for a $480 million autoimmune deal comprising a degrader of a once-undruggable transcription factor. 

Sanofi has been on a spending spree in recent weeks to bolster its autoimmune and immunology pipeline.\n Sanofi is continuing to splash the cash for autoimmune and immunology assets this spring by penning a new deal with little-known U.S. artificial intelligence research biotech Earendil Labs in a pact that could be worth up to $1.8 billion. The French pharma is handing over $125 million upfront, with a near-term payment of $50 million to follow, for the exclusive worldwide rights to a pair of bispecific antibodies. HXN-1002 targets α4β7 and TL1A with the aim of treating ulcerative colitis and Crohn\'s disease, while HXN-1003 targets TL1A and IL23 in order to treat colitis and skin inflammation.Should the two drugs progress through the clinic and reach the market, Sanofi will be liable to pay $1.72 billion in development and commercial milestone payments, which includes that $50 million near-term fee, alongside tiered royalties.“We firmly believe that Sanofi\'s extensive expertise in the autoimmune disease field will significantly accelerate the development of HXN-1002 and HXN-1003, ultimately bringing these potentially life-changing treatments to patients worldwide as soon as possible,” Earendil Labs President & co-CEO Zhenping Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., said in an April 17 release.Little is publicly known about Earendil Labs, which touts itself as a “global leader in AI-driven research and development of next-generation biologics therapeutics.” The biotech describes itself as affiliated with Helixon Therapeutics, a company that, like Earendil, claims to harness machine learning for protein drug design. \"Our platform leverages state-of-the-art predictive protein modeling and high-throughput biology, revolutionizing the discovery and development of bispecific antibodies,” Earendil co-CEO Jian Peng, Ph.D., said in the same release. “This collaboration underscores Earendil Labs\' capability to generate potential first-in-class or best-in-class product candidates, with the aim of transforming patient care.”Sanofi has been on a spending spree in recent weeks to bolster its autoimmune and immunology pipeline, returning to Nurix earlier this month for a $480 million autoimmune deal comprising a degrader of a once-undruggable transcription factor. In March, Sanofi penned a $1.6 billion agreement with Dren Bio for a CD20-directed antibody aimed at B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.Sanofi—which co-markets the anti-inflammatory blockbuster Dupixent with Regeneron—has been undergoing a major pipeline shake-up in an effort to become “an immunoscience powerhouse,\" according to an internal letter obtained by Fierce Biotech last year. In the pharma’s full-year earnings call in January 2025, Sanofi’s head of R&D, Houman Ashrafian, Ph.D., reiterated this point, reminding investors that the company is becoming a “premier immunology powerhouse” with the option to combine various molecules it is developing in this space.

Sanofi has agreed to pay up to $465 million in milestones for exclusive rights to the latest program. \n Sanofi has returned to Nurix Therapeutics for another autoimmune candidate, paying $15 million and committing up to $465 million for exclusive rights to a degrader of a once-undruggable transcription factor.Nurix has landed deals with Sanofi and Gilead and built an internal pipeline on a platform for identifying agents that use E3 ligases to drive the degradation of targets. Sanofi paid $55 million to partner with the biotech in 2019 and handed over a further $22 million to expand the collaboration one year later. Nurix and Sanofi extended the deal again last year to cover a STAT6 degrader. The latest deal covers a new, previously undisclosed program. Sanofi and Nurix are keeping the target under wraps for now, but Gwenn Hansen, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at the biotech, offered some clues in a statement.“This high-value target is a transcription factor involved in the regulation of proinflammatory cytokines serving as a central regulator of inflammation response in autoimmune diseases where targeted protein degradation could offer an innovative treatment option,” Hansen said. Like other developers of protein degraders, Nurix pitches its technology as a way to go after targets that have been considered undruggable, for example, because they lack viable binding sites. Hansen said the company used its platform to identify “novel binders from which we derived a series of targeted protein degraders and stand-alone target binders” for the new Sanofi target.The $15 million upfront brings the amount Sanofi has paid Nurix to date up to $105 million. That figure could swell in the coming years. Sanofi has agreed to pay up to $465 million in milestones for exclusive rights to the latest program. The potential paydays add to the $1.9 billion that Nurix was eligible for at the end of November. Nurix has the option to co-develop and co-promote the latest candidate in the U.S. How much Sanofi pays Nurix will depend on the progress of its programs. Nurix plans to give Sanofi the STAT6 development candidate package in the first half of 2025. The Big Pharma has an option to take the candidate through IND-enabling studies and into the clinic. Partnerships have helped Nurix build a cash cushion that stood at more than $600 million at the end of November. The biotech is using the money to advance a pipeline led by NX-5948, a BTK degrader that is on course to enter trials this year to support approval in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.