French drugmaker Sanofi said on Wednesday 8 september, it would buy U.S. biopharmaceutical company Kadmon Holdings for 1.9 billion dollars, one month after announcing the purchase of another US biotech, Translate Bio for $3.2 billion. In April, Sanofi completed the purchase of Kymab Ltd., a maker of antibody treatments, for $1.1 billion upfront.

Sanofi said it has offered $9.50 per share in cash for Kadmon, representing a total equity value of approximately $1.9 billion on a fully diluted basis, and that both companies' boards unanimously approved the transaction.

Sanofi's price tag represents a 79% premium on Kadmon's $5.30 closing price on Tuesday.

"The acquisition supports Sanofi's strategy to continue to grow its general medicines core assets and will immediately add Rezurock (belumosudil) to its transplant portfolio," the two companies said in a joint statement.

Rezurock, a treatment for adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), was approved in July by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

"Kadmon's pipeline includes drug candidates for immune and fibrotic diseases as well as immuno-oncology therapies", the companies said.

Sanofi is under pressure to revive its drug pipeline and is also eager to overcome setbacks in the COVID-19 vaccine race.

The Kadmon transaction is expected to be modestly dilutive to Sanofi's EPS in 2022.

At Tuesday's closing price of 86,95 euros, Sanofi's share price is up 10.5% since the start of the year, underperforming a Stoxx 600 Europe health care index that has risen 18% during that time.

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