(News Bulletin 247) – The company indicated this Thursday that it had ended the program evaluating tusamitamab ravtansine for the second-line treatment of non-small cell bronchopulmonary cancer. This decision followed the failure of a phase III trial.

Sanofi suffers a setback in the development of a drug candidate. The pharmaceutical group announced this Thursday that it had terminated the program evaluating tusamitamab ravtansine for the second-line treatment of non-small cell bronchopulmonary cancer (NSCLC).

NSCLC represents the majority of lung cancers (85% to 90%) with smoking being the main risk factor. According to the European Society for Medical Oncology, it is the third most common type of cancer in Europe, with 470,000 new cases in 2018.

Sanofi had launched a phase III clinical trial (the last stage before potential commercialization), called CARMEN-LCO3, to evaluate second-line monotherapy with tusamitamab ravtansine compared to treatment with docetaxel, a standard chemotherapy, in patients with NSCLC.

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Shift towards intensification of R&D

Based on an interim analysis, Sanofi reported that tusamitamab ravtansine did not meet its dual primary endpoints of progression-free survival, compared to docetaxel.

“Despite a trend improvement in overall survival, the decision to terminate the program is due to the fact that the final analysis did not establish that this treatment improves progression-free survival,” the company explained in a statement. communicated.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Sanofi shares only faltered slightly, dropping 0.40% to 88.81 euros around 10:30 a.m.

The abandonment of the development of this potential treatment comes as Sanofi decided in October to intensify its R&D efforts to develop new drugs and find growth drivers likely to reduce its dependence on its blockbuster Dupixent. Sales of the latter drug jumped 43.8% last year to more than 8 billion euros, and Sanofi expects its growth to exceed 10% each year until 2030. should allow Dupixent’s sales to cross the 20 billion euro revenue mark in 2030.

At the beginning of the month, Sanofi organized a day to convince investors of its shift towards an intensification of R&D, a decision which had been poorly received by the market, in particular because it should lead the company to publish a net profit per share of its activities down next year.

Potential blockbusters

During this day dedicated to R&D, the pharmaceutical group indicated that it had a portfolio of twelve molecules currently undergoing clinical studies and whose potential revenues could amount to between 2 billion and more than 5 billion euros per year. year at cruising speed.

Tusamitamab ravtansine did not appear in the list of these potential “blockbusters”, unlike tolebrutinib, a treatment against certain forms of multiple sclerosis which should be submitted for approval to the health authorities next year.

This “very dense” R&D day had “not really convinced” the market, underlined Invest Securities, the research office pointing out “the absence of data on the costs and the impacts to be anticipated on net profit per share” of the company.

Conversely, the independent research firm AlphaValue judged that the company demonstrated pragmatism and appreciated the turnaround made by the group which should improve its results in the long term.

“Historically, Sanofi has spent much less on R&D (around 15% of sales on average over the period 2011-22) than its Swiss counterparts (around 19%), i.e. Roche and Novartis. Therefore, the French giant had to rely largely on partnerships and external acquisitions to support its activities”, recalls AlphaValue.

“The company’s main drugs, including Dupixent, Altuviiio and Beyfortus, were developed in partnership with other companies, which over the years has weighed on Sanofi’s profitability (…) investors who hope that Sanofi’s margins will improve, and should therefore not regret that management abandons its short-term objectives, to reorient the company towards better profitability in the medium and long term”, adds the research office.