India's biotech companies are beginning to make their mark in the antibody development field. Sanofi has inked a $663 million development pact with India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, proffering $50 million in coming months along with a promise of up to $613 million more in milestones to gain rights to an experimental MS drug. In return Sanofi gains U.S. and European marketing rights to GBR 500, an antibody which tackles white blood cells involved in inflammation.
"This is definitely significant because it's the first time an Indian company has developed the expertise" to make biologic drugs, Bino Pathiparampil, a pharmaceutical analyst at IIFL Institutional Equities, told Bloomberg. Glenmark shares jumped 12 percent on the news.
Glenmark CEO Glenn Saldanha noted that this is the company's second deal with Sanofi and the first for a novel biologic. The deal also comes with an endorsement for Chromos Molecular Systems, a Canadian biotech which provided the antibody technology to Glenmark.
- read the Sanofi release
- check out the story from Bloomberg