Sanofi offers to acquire Kiadis for €308 million
Current TAP Partner
Paris, France and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2 November 2020 – Sanofi (Euronext: SAN and NYSE: SNY) and Kiadis Pharma N.V. (“Kiadis” or the “Company”) (Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels: KDS) today announce that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Sanofi will offer to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares of Kiadis at a price per Kiadis share of €5.45 in cash (272% premium to the closing price on 30 October 2020), representing an aggregate adjusted equity value of approximately €308 million. The Kiadis Management Board and Supervisory Board unanimously approve the intended transaction and recommend the Offer to holders of Kiadis’ Shares.
Kiadis’ proprietary platform is based on allogeneic or ‘off-the-shelf' NK-cells from a healthy donor. NK-cells seek and identify malignant cancer cells and have broad application across various tumor types. The platform has the potential to make products rapidly and economically available for a broad patient population across a wide range of indications. Kiadis’ NK cell-based medicines will be developed alone and in combination with Sanofi’s existing platforms. Sanofi’s research, development, manufacturing and commercial expertise will be leveraged to advance Kiadis’ pipeline, which includes NK-cell-based medicines for the treatment of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant, liquid and solid tumors, as well as infectious disease. In July 2020, Sanofi licensed Kiadis’ pre-clinical K-NK004 program for multiple myeloma.
Kiadis’ pipeline of NK-cell therapies has the potential to deliver adjunctive therapy for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or who have acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
- K-NK002 is in a Phase 2 study evaluating NK-cells to prevent post-transplant relapse in patients with AML and myelodysplastic syndromes. The trial will be conducted in collaboration with premier U.S. transplant centers.
- K-NK003 is in a Phase 1 study evaluating NK-cells for patients with relapsed or refractory AML.
Kiadis previously entered into a partnership with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society via its Therapy Acceleration Program® (TAP) in 2016 through an equity investment.