Sanofi has agreed to spend $470 million to take control of a young biotechnology company and its experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease.

赛诺菲同意斥资 4.7 亿美元，以控制一家年轻生物技术公司及其用于治疗阿尔茨海默氏症的实验性药物。

The

The

newly announced acquisition

新宣布的收购

has Sanofi paying $8 for each share of Vigil Neuroscience it doesn’t already own, reflecting a premium of nearly 250% to the price Vigil shares traded at Wednesday afternoon. The French pharmaceutical giant

赛诺菲将为其尚未拥有的Vigil Neuroscience每股支付8美元，较Vigil股价周三下午的交易价格溢价近250%。这家法国制药巨头

invested $40 million

投资了4000万美元

into Vigil last June, and in exchange got an exclusive right to be first in line for deal talks if Vigil chose to license out its platform of small molecule drugs that amplify a protein called TREM2.

进入Vigil公司去年六月，并且作为交换，获得了如果Vigil选择将其小分子药物平台授权出去，该平台能增强一种名为TREM2的蛋白质，优先进行交易谈判的独家权利。

The most advanced of those drugs, code-named VG-3927, several months ago

那些药物中最先进的，代号为VG-3927的，几个月前

completed an early-stage study

完成了早期研究

that enrolled both healthy volunteers and patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Vigil’s president and CEO, Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch, said in a statement that the acquisition should help “fully unlock and accelerate the development of VG-3927.”

这项试验同时招募了健康志愿者和阿尔茨海默病患者。Vigil公司的总裁兼首席执行官伊万娜·马戈夫切维奇-利比施在一份声明中表示，此次收购应该有助于“充分释放并加速VG-3927的开发”。

A second molecule from the platform, VGL101, is not being acquired by Sanofi. Instead, rights to that molecule will be returned to the original licensor, Amgen.

来自该平台的第二个分子VGL101并未被赛诺菲收购。相反，该分子的权利将归还给原始授权方安进公司。

Neuroscience is one of Sanofi’s core “strategic” research focuses, alongside cancer, rare diseases and the immune system. Yet, in terms of product sales, it pales in comparison to those other three areas. Sanofi’s portfolio lists just one neurology drug, the multiple sclerosis therapy Aubagio, which last year accounted for .

神经科学是赛诺菲的“战略”核心研究领域之一，与癌症、罕见疾病和免疫系统并列。然而，在产品销售方面，与其它三个领域相比，神经科学相形见绌。赛诺菲的产品组合中仅列出了一种神经科药物，即多发性硬化症治疗药物Aubagio，该药物去年的销售额为。

less than 1% of the 41 billion euros in net sales

410亿欧元的净销售额中，不到百分之一

recorded by the company’s biopharma unit.

由公司的生物制药部门记录。

Sanofi is trying to grow this pool with a few experimental medicines that have progressed to the later stages of development. One,

赛诺菲正试图通过一些已进入后期开发阶段的实验性药物来扩大这个领域。其中之一，

frexalimab

弗雷西单抗

, is what Sanofi touts as a “pipeline-in-a-product” asset, since the company believes it has the potential to treat a range of illnesses, from MS to lupus to diabetes. Another, riliprubart, is being

，赛诺菲称之为“产品中的管道”资产，因为该公司认为它有治疗一系列疾病的潜力，从多发性硬化症到狼疮再到糖尿病。另一个药物riliprubart正在

evaluated against “CIPD,”

与“CIPD”进行对比评估，

a rare disorder that harms the peripheral nerves, leading to arm and leg weakness.

一种损害周围神经的罕见疾病，导致手臂和腿部无力。

A third, tolebrutinib, has been tested

第三个，托勒布替尼，已经过测试

across different types of MS

跨不同类型的MS

and is currently being considered for approval by Food and Drug Administration, with a decision deadline set for late September. Sanofi got ahold of tolebrutinib through its $3.7 billion purchase of Principia Biopharma in 2020.

并且目前正在等待食品和药物管理局的批准，决定的最后期限定在九月下旬。赛诺菲通过其在2020年以37亿美元收购Principia Biopharma获得了tolebrutinib。

Notably, all of these medicines work by regulating the immune system, which is characteristic of Sanofi’s approach to neurology.

值得注意的是，所有这些药物都是通过调节免疫系统来发挥作用的，这是赛诺菲在神经学领域的一个特点。

The Vigil deal follows this approach, too, as TREM2 alerts the brain’s resident immune cells to threats like the toxic “abeta” plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. When this protein is impaired or loses its function, it can

Vigil 交易也遵循这一方法，因为 TREM2 会提醒大脑的常驻免疫细胞注意诸如阿尔茨海默病标志性的有毒“abeta”斑块等威胁。当这种蛋白质受损或失去功能时，它可能会影响免疫反应。

increase the risk

增加风险

of nerve cell injury, inflammation and death.

神经细胞损伤、炎症和死亡。

“TREM2 represents a compelling target at the intersection of immune dysregulation and neurodegeneration,” said Houman Ashrafian, Sanofi’s head of R&D, in that Wednesday statement.

“TREM2 是一个位于免疫失调和神经退行性病变交汇点的引人注目的靶点，”赛诺菲研发主管侯曼·阿什拉菲安在周三的声明中表示。

The acquisition also supports Sanofi’s strategy of “leveraging our expertise in immunology” to solve health problems with “critical unmet need,” Ashrafian added.

阿什拉夫补充说，此次收购还支持了赛诺菲“利用我们在免疫学方面的专业知识”来解决“关键未满足需求”的健康问题的战略。

The companies expect their deal to close sometime between July and the end of September, provided investors holding a majority of the outstanding shares of Vigil common stock approve it. Sanofi said Magovčević-Liebisch — as well as Vigil backers Atlas Venture and Bruce Booth, a partner at the firm — have signed voting and support agreements in favor of the deal..

这些公司预计，如果持有大多数流通股的投资者批准这笔交易，交易将在7月至9月底之间的某个时间完成。赛诺菲表示，马戈夫切维奇-利布施以及Vigil的支持者Atlas Venture和该公司合伙人布鲁斯·布斯均已签署投票和支持协议，支持这笔交易。

Together, they represent roughly 16.2% of Vigil’s total common shares outstanding.

他们合计约占Vigil已发行普通股总数的16.2%。

In addition to the upfront payment, Vigil’s shareholders will receive a so-called contingent value right that would entitle them to receive a deferred cash payment of $2 for each share they own once VG-3927 has its first commercial sale.

除了首付款之外，Vigil的股东还将获得所谓的或有价值权，一旦VG-3927实现首次商业销售，他们将有权获得每股2美元的延期现金支付。

'We believe this is a good outcome for shareholders in the current funding environment,' wrote Myles Minter, an analyst at William Blair who covers Vigil, in a note to clients.

“我们认为，在当前的融资环境下，这对股东来说是一个很好的结果，”威廉布莱尔公司分析师迈尔斯·明特在给客户的一份报告中写道。他负责研究Vigil公司。

Vigil debuted at $14 per share when it

Vigil以每股14美元的价格首次亮相时

went public in January 2022

于2022年1月上市

, but has lost most of its market value since.

，但自那以后已经失去了大部分市场价值。

In his own note, Stifel analyst Paul Matteis argued the timing of the deal is 'interesting,' given a TREM2-targeting drug from Alector and AbbVie

在自己的笔记中，Stifel的分析师保罗·马蒂斯认为，考虑到Alector和AbbVie公司一种针对TREM2的药物，这笔交易的时机“很有趣”。

recently failed in a mid-stage study

最近在中期研究中失败

. That setback 'significantly diminished enthusiasm for the target,' according to Matteis, so while there were reasons to think Vigil's drug could fare better, 'it was going to be hard to have conviction in this until we saw [Phase 2] data.'

根据马特伊斯的说法，那次挫折“显著降低了对这一目标的热情”，因此尽管有理由认为Vigil的药物可能会表现得更好，但“在我们看到[第二阶段]数据之前，很难对此保持信心”。