In late April, when Sanofi revealed that it was selling a controlling stake in its consumer health business Opella for 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion), chief financial officer Francois Roger said that the French drugmaker would “explore external growth opportunities for bolt-on acquisitions.”
Just five weeks later, Sanofi has made a deal few would describe as “bolt-on,” as it has bought out Massachusetts-based Blueprint Medicines for up to $9.5 billion.
With the deal, Sanofi gains Blueprint’s portfolio of rare immunological disease treatments, including systemic mastocytosis (SM) pill Ayvakit, which generated sales of $479 million last year and has peak sales potential of $2 billion, the 14-year-old company projected last year.
Blueprint also brings a next-generation SM candidate in elenestinib, a KIT D816V inhibitor which is the subject of a phase 2/3 study, and an early-stage KIT inhibitor BLU-808. KIT plays a central role in mast cell activation, Sanofi said, which is implicated in a broad range of inflammatory diseases.
Sanofi is paying $129 per share for the drugmaker, which is a 27% premium over Blueprint’s closing price on May 30 and 34% above its average price over the previous 30 days.
The acquisition includes contingent value rights (CVRs) tied to the advancement of BLU-808, which could expand payments to Blueprint shareholders by $2 and $4 per share, bringing the total equity value of the deal from $9.1 billion to $9.5 billion.
The Blueprint buyout "complements recent acquisitions of early-stage medicines that remain our main field of interest,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a release. “Sanofi still retains a sizeable capacity for further acquisitions.”
While Blueprint’s shares jumped by 26% on Monday, Sanofi’s dropped by less than 1%.
It is Sanofi’s largest acquisition since its 2018 buyout of hemophilia specialist Bioverativ for $11.8 billion. The Blueprint deal comes after Sanofi made an unsuccessful play in 2022 for another rare disease specialist, Horizon Therapeutics. In that case, Amgen took the prize with its $27.8 billion offer.
Sanofi said it anticipates completing the deal in the third quarter and that it will not impact its 2025 financial guidance. The company said in April that it expects (PDF) sales to increase by mid-to-high single digits this year on top of a 9% year-over-year increase in 2024 to 41.1 billion euros ($44.5 billion).
The acquisition will help revitalize Sanofi’s portfolio, which has taken a few hits recently. Last week, Sanofi and Regeneron reported the failure of a phase 3 trial of their chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) candidate itepekimab. In February, Sanofi revealed a phase 3 trial of its invasive E. coli vaccine came up short. The candidate had been acquired from Johnson & Johnson for $250 million.
Sanofi has been active in the M&A market this year, picking up Dren Bio’s clinical-stage bispecific antibody, DR-0201, for $600 million upfront and another $1.3 billion in milestones. Last month, Sanofi spent $470 million for Vigil Neuroscience and its investigative Alzheimer’s disease candidate. And in January, Sanofi paid $2.2 billion for Inbibrx and its human recombinant protein rare disease drug.
Other recent Sanofi deals include a $3.2 billion acquisition of Translate Bio in 2021 and a $2.9 billion buyout of Provention Bio in 2023.