Sanofi will acquire the London-based vaccine startup Vicebio for $1.15 billion upfront and as much as $450 million in future payments, the companies said Tuesday.
The deal marks Sanofi’s fourth acquisition of the year, following the recently completed $9 billion purchase of commercial-stage drugmaker Blueprint Medicines, an Alzheimer’s pipeline expansion with a $470 million deal for Vigil Neuroscience and a takeover of Dren Bio’s bispecific myeloid cell engager. The quartet of deals deepens Sanofi’s pipeline, which has been reshaped in recent years.
Vicebio will provide Sanofi access to a platform technology that could be applied to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (hMPV) and Parainfluenza Virus 3 (PIV3), among infections. The smaller company raised a $100 million Series B last year to propel its projects through early-stage trials.
The French pharma’s pipeline already includes a suite of vaccine projects across flu, RSV, hMPV, pneumococcal disease, acne, chlamydia, meningitis, yellow fever and others.
The move for Vicebio marks one of just a few recent vaccine biotech acquisitions. That includes a small Dutch-Singapore deal earlier this year, Gilead’s HIV-focused buy in 2024 and AstraZeneca’s move for a protein virus-like particle platform in late 2023. A few startups, including Curevo and Centivax, have reeled in funding this year for their big ambitions.
