Watertown, Mass. – May 13, 2015 – Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a novel class of targeted antigen-specific immune therapies, today announced that, under the terms of an existing strategic global collaboration, Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) has exercised its option to an exclusive license to develop an immunotherapy for the treatment of celiac disease.
In celiac disease patients, the consumption of gluten-containing food induces harmful immune responses that can lead to abdominal pain and, in most severe cases, intestinal cancer. This new immune tolerance program expands activities within the Sanofi-Selecta collaboration, which is already successfully advancing a novel immunotherapy for a life-threatening food allergy. The products resulting from this collaboration will leverage Selecta’s proprietary Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) platform, which has unique capabilities to engineer nanoparticles with the structure and composition to produce immune tolerance by attenuating the overactive response to specific antigens.
“Sanofi and Selecta are working together to push toward the outer barriers of immunotherapy to deliver innovative solutions to patients. This area is constantly evolving, and with partners like Selecta, breakthrough medicines may be within our grasp,” said Kurt Stoeckli, Vice President and Head of Biotherapeutics, Research & Development at Sanofi.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Selecta is eligible to receive research support and several pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and sales milestones totaling up to $300 million for this new program in celiac disease. Additionally, Selecta is also entitled to up to double digit tiered royalties as percentage of product net sales for any commercialized immunotherapy resulting from these efforts with Sanofi.