Dec. 22, 2021 - Paris-based Sanofi is buying South San Francisco’s Amunix Pharmaceuticals in a deal topping $1.225 billion.
Amunix focuses on immuno-oncology with a proprietary XEN and universal protease-releasable masking technology platform, Pro-XTEN. The tech allows the company to discover and develop transformative T-cell engagers (TCE) and cytokine therapies for cancer patients.
Under the terms of the deal, Sanofi is paying Amunix $1 billion up front and up to $225 million in various development milestone payments.
Amunix’s lead program is AMX-818, a masked HER2-directed TCE. In April, the company presented preclinical data on AMX-818 at the AACR Annual Meeting. The data showed that the drug targeted HER2 expressing tumors was preferentially activated in the protease-rich tumor microenvironment, demonstrating significant tumor regression in HER2 tumor models and in non-human primates.
https://www.biospace.com/article/-sanofi-drops-1-billion-upfront-on-immuno-oncology-company-amunix/
"ONCY's pelareorep "profoundly" overturns an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) which is otherwise hostile to PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors and does this by stimulating the innate and adaptive immune systems through cytokine and CD8+ T- cell activation in advance of the addition of a checkpoint inhibitor.
...