Malin Corporation said its investee immunotherapy company Kymab has been bought by French drugmaker Sanofi in a deal worth up to $1.45 billion.
Malin, which invests in highly innovative life sciences companies, owns about 10% of the issued share capital of Kymab and said the sale is expected to deliver initial net proceeds to Malin of about $112m.
Malin also has the potential to receive up to a further $33 million on the achievement of certain milestones.
Under the terms of the deal, which will see Sanofi pay $1.1 billion upfront, the French company will get full rights to Kymab's KY1005, an antibody therapy viewed as having the potential to treat a wide range of inflammatory disorders and immune-related diseases.
KY1005 passed a mid-stage Phase IIa clinical trial in August.
The deal price could increase by $350m based on reaching certain milestones.
"The sale of Kymab is a very significant milestone for Malin in our continuing strategy to deliver maximal value to shareholders," Darragh Lyons, Malin's chief executive said.
"We remain focused on working with our investee companies to achieve clinical and operational milestones and to realise our investments at optimal value inflection points," Mr Lyons said.
"€45m of the upfront cash proceeds from the sale of Kymab will be used to repay our outstanding EIB debt in full, with the balance to be used to initiate capital returns to shareholders which we expect to occur during the second half of 2021," he added.
Today's deal for Kymab is the latest acquisition for Sanofi.
In November, it spent €308m on Dutch biotechnology company Kiadis, which specialises in cell-based immunotherapy products to treat cancer.
In August, it scooped up US autoimmune diseases specialist Principia Biopharma for $3.7 billion, following a $2.5 billion investment to acquire immuno-oncology treatments group Synthorx in December 2019.
Sanofi was late to capitalise on the take-off of immunotherapy - drugs that activate the body's immune system to attack tumour cells - in the early 2010s.
It is now trying to catch up and is focusing on a pipeline of several medicines that it hopes will secure it a piece of the $100 billion-a-year cancer drug market.
Kymab's pipeline also includes KY1044, a cancer treatment currently in Phase I/II clinical development.
The acquisition, to be paid in cash, is expected to be completed by the end of June.
