SNY - Sanofi
| Previous Close | 45.30 |
| Open | 47.81 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 1100 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 3200 |
| Day's Range | 47.39 - 48.41 |
| 52 Week Range | 40.00 - 48.41 |
| Volume | 10,279,681 |
| Avg. Volume | 1,566,146 |
| Market Cap | 120B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.47 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 24.79 |
| EPS (TTM) | 1.94 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 1.74 (3.84%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-05-07 |
| 1y Target Est | 52.00 |
Reuters VideosM&A Monday in healthcare: Merck, Sanofi, UnitedHealth
M&A Monday in healthcare, with two of the deals involving cancer drugs. Merck is buying ArQule for $2.7 billion. It's the latest move by a U.S. drug maker to buy targeted cancer therapies. The deal strengthens Merck's oncology business well before its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda loses its market exclusivity in 2028. ArQule's crown jewel that Merck wants is a precision drug that tailors treatment to a patient's genetic profile. California's biotech firm Synthorx is getting $2.5 billion in cash, selling itself to France's Sanofi. Synthorx focuses on therapies for people with cancer or auto-immune disorders. Sanofi is stepping up its drive to expand into cancer drugs under its new chief executive. Like Merck, Sanofi is also paying a rich premium. UnitedHealth, by contrast, is buying Diplomat Pharmacy at a 31% discount. Diplomat has been losing customers in its pharmacy benefits management business due to intense competition. Shares of acquirers Merck, Sanofi and UnitedHealth fell, while Arqule and Synthorx shares doubled in early trading. Diplomat shares plunged more than 30%.
- Zacks
Why Biotech ETFs are Surging to New Highs
increasing M&A deals and cutting edge therapies are driving biotech ETFs higher
- Investor's Business Daily
Why This Pharmaceutical Stock Broke Out Bullishly In Early Action
SNY stock broke out Tuesday after pharmaceutical company unveiled a plan to restructure its agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Sanofi will also restructure its business.
- Benzinga
Regeneron Shares Swing On Sanofi's Hint At Sale Of Ownership Stake, Amendments To Drug Collaborations
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: REGN) shares were rebounding Tuesday as investors digested French pharma giant and collaboration partner Sanofi SA's (NASDAQ: SNY) potential liquidation of its Regeneron stake — and the restructuring of a collaboration agreement between the two. At Sanofi's Capital Markets Day, the company announced a slew of measures intended to drive innovation and growth. Apart from prioritizing key growth drivers — Dupixent and vaccines — and accelerating an R&D focus on six potentially transformative medicines, Sanofi said it would improve operating efficiencies to fund growth.
- Zacks
Biotech ETFs Hit New Highs on Deal Activities
Following the new deals in the healthcare space, a few biotech ETFs hit new highs.
- Zacks
Merck to Buy ArQule for $2.7B to Boost Cancer Portfolio
Merck (MRK) offers to acquire ArQule for a deal value of $2.7 billion. The transaction will add ArQule's lead investigational candidate ARQ 531 to Merck's oncology portfolio.
- MarketWatch
Regeneron shares fall on Sanofi's new direction
Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced plans to restructure two drug-development collaborations after Sanofi announced a new direction for the French drugmaker. In premarket trading, Regeneron's stock was down 3%; Sanofi's shares gained 4%. Paul Hudson, a former Novartis executive who has been running Sanofi since September, said Tuesday that the French drugmaker will exit the diabetes and cardiovascular disease categories. It will instead focus on vaccines and commercializing its pipeline, which includes cancer and hemophilia therapies. As part of this restructuring, Sanofi will get sole global rights to rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara and sole rights to Praluent, a PCSK9 inhibitor used to treat patients with cardiovascular disease, outside the U.S. The companies' partnership around Dupixent, an eczema medication, will not change. Shares of Sanofi have gained 9% year-to-date, while Regeneron's stock has fallen 2%. The S&P 500 is up 25% year-to-date.
- Zacks
Sanofi Unveils Growth Strategy, Ends Diabetes & CV Research
Sanofi (SNY) to prioritize key growth drivers, improve operating efficiencies and generate cost savings. The company discontinues R&D activities in diabetes and cardiovascular segments.
- Zacks
Pharma M&As Continue, Merck, Sanofi to Buy Cancer Drug Firms
Merck offers to buy ArQule for $2.7 billion while Sanofi signs a definitive deal to purchase Synthorx for $2.5 billion.
- Investor's Business Daily
Dow Jones Futures: Stock Market, Apple On China Trade War Watch; Boeing, MongoDB, Stitch Fix Move On News
Dow futures and Apple fell as the stock market still awaits China trade war clarity from President Trump on Dec. 15 tariffs. MongoDB, Stitch Fix, Boeing and AutoZone moved on news.
- Benzinga
The Daily Biotech Pulse: ASH Meeting Wraps, Fast Track Designation For Equillium, Pfizer To Buy $3M In ContraFect Shares
The following are top developments in the biotech space over the last 24 hours. Scaling The Peaks (Biotech stocks that hit 52-week highs Dec. 9.) Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: XLRN ) Aimmune Therapeutics ...
- Barrons.com
Regeneron Stock Slides as French Drug Giant Sanofi Mulls Selling Stake
Regeneron’s stock dropped 2.6% in pre-market trading after French drug giant Sanofi said it may sell its stake in the U.S. biotech leader.
- MarketWatch
Drug manufacturers have spent a record $342 billion on M&A in 2019
A string of multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical deals announced over the last week call attention to a record-setting year in which drugmakers and biotechs have spent $342 billion snapping up smaller companies to bolster their pipelines.
- Bloomberg
Sanofi’s CEO Quits Diabetes as Cancer Breakthroughs Beckon
(Bloomberg) -- Sanofi’s new chief executive, just three months into the job, is taking a scalpel to traditional areas of research to rejuvenate the sluggish French drugmaker.The pharma giant will end its hunt for new diabetes and heart disease drugs, helping save more than $2 billion as Paul Hudson favors fields like cancer that are ripe for innovation. Hudson, who took the helm in September, is set to outline his strategy to investors for the first time on Tuesday.“We’re deploying where we think we’ll get the best return, not just financially but scientifically,” Hudson said on a conference call with reporters. Sanofi shares rose as much as 5.4% in Paris trading, the biggest gain in about six months.The former pharma boss at Novartis AG is breaking with Sanofi’s past and setting a course familiar to the industry: exiting fields where the French drugmaker isn’t leading the pack and betting on the next big drugs, especially in areas where new medicines command high prices.The company said Monday it will focus on six promising therapies in areas such as hemophilia, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and rare diseases. Sanofi’s $2.5 billion deal to buy Synthorx Inc., also unveiled Monday, underscores the company’s ambition to build up its stable of cancer medicines and catch rivals like Merck & Co., Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc in the lucrative field.“This is a positive start,” Wimal Kapadia, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a note. “Does it fix the R&D engine problem? Not quite, but that is a longer-term story.”Hudson’s pragmatic approach will extend to the relationship with partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. One option to raise funds could be to sell Sanofi’s stake in Regeneron after a lock-up period expires at the end of next year, Hudson said, sending the U.S. company’s shares falling.“As the lockup expires, your flexibility increases,” he said. “You don’t have to change anything, but you could choose to. We will look at the equity and decide where it can yield the best return for us as an organization.”The maker of the aging insulin Lantus also won’t launch an experimental diabetes drug known as a GLP-1 and will look for a partner to take over the treatment, called efpeglenatide.Making these changes is “not easy for a company like ours with an incredibly proud history,” Hudson said. The plan is aimed at strengthening a pipeline that’s been slow to deliver, with a view to boosting Sanofi’s operating profit margin to 30%.Not everyone is turning their back on diabetes, even with increasing pushback on prices, tough competition and scrutiny from lawmakers. Rival Novo Nordisk A/S is betting on a next generation of GLP-1s and sees an opportunity to roll out “smarter” insulins to the ones currently available, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in an interview.“There is actually still a very attractive market,” he said in London Tuesday.Sanofi investors are counting on the new boss to fire up the company’s research operations. Since replacing Olivier Brandicourt, Hudson has faced questions about the future of businesses that make diabetes drugs and over-the-counter medicines, as well as its plans in the field of gene therapy.The company also said Monday that its consumer-health unit will become a standalone business to make it more nimble and entrepreneurial, separate from its three other arms. The plan signals “a potential sale/spin in the future,” Peter Verdult, an analyst at Citi, wrote in a note to clients. Bloomberg News reported internal discussions over options for the business last month, citing people familiar with the matter.While Sanofi hunts for new blockbusters, it also sees significant growth for Dupixent, its standout medicine for severe eczema and asthma. The treatment’s annual sales could exceed 10 billion euros ($11.1 billion) at their peak as its reach extends to new areas, the company said.At Novartis, Hudson was credited with rolling out products such as the blockbuster Cosentyx for psoriasis.While he was a top executive there, the Swiss drugmaker moved to spin off contact-lens maker Alcon and ditched a stake in a consumer-health venture, narrowing its focus on cutting-edge medicines for cancer and other serious diseases. Novartis also has made a series of deals, including the $8.7 billion purchase last year of AveXis, the developer of gene therapy Zolgensma.Sanofi has already been expanding in cancer after acknowledging it missed out on the last wave of revolutionary breakthroughs to attack tumors. With a new research head, John Reed, the company earlier this year said it would accelerate 17 drug programs, almost half in oncology, and drop more than a dozen others under development.Along with Regeneron, Sanofi last year won approval for an immune-oncology drug -- its first -- for a deadly form of skin cancer. The company said earlier this year it expects U.S. regulators to decide on an experimental cancer medicine, isatuximab for multiple myeloma, at the end of April.Synthorx’s main treatment could become the foundation for the next immune oncology medicines and work in combination with the French company’s treatments, Sanofi said.(Adds comments from rival Novo in 11th paragraph)\--With assistance from Albertina Torsoli.To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in London at jpaton4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Marthe Fourcade, Mark SchoifetFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
European stocks drop for seventh time in nine sessions
European stocks lost ground on Tuesday for the seventh time in nine sessions, as the perilous state of U.S.-China trade talks lingers above the market.
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Possible tariff delay lifts European shares off session lows
European shares fell for a second day running on Tuesday, but a 6% jump in drugmaker Sanofi and a report that U.S. and Chinese officials are planning to delay tariffs set to kick in on Dec. 15 helped them end off session lows. In a week also packed with other global political and economic events such as an election in Britain and U.S. and European central bank meetings, the pan-regional STOXX 600 index closed down 0.3%, recovering from a fall of up to 1.2% earlier in the day.
- Bloomberg
Flagging French Drug Giant Tries a Familiar Remedy
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson didn’t inherit an easy job when he took over the French pharma giant in September. The company’s shares have been in the doldrums for years, weighed down by a sagging diabetes business and a weak pipeline of new drugs. The former Novartis AG executive kicked off his turnaround effort in earnest Monday by announcing the acquisition of cancer startup Synthorx Inc. for $2.5 billion and releasing a new strategic plan for the drugmaker. Under Hudson, Sanofi plans to halt investment in heart and diabetes research, doubling down on other areas including cancer and rare diseases. The company’s consumer unit will become a stand-alone business, which raises the specter of a possible future sale. All of the moves make some sense and are in line with what other large drugmakers, including his prior employer, have tried in recent years. The key to success for Sanofi will be execution, and there are pitfalls aplenty. One of the most significant changes at Sanofi is its move away from once-core diabetes and heart medicines. Hudson says he sees more valuable opportunities elsewhere, and he could be right; pricing pressure has made those areas increasingly competitive. Sanofi’s new areas of focus may offer more growth potential and higher prices, which will be crucial if the company is going to hit Hudson’s ambitious new margin-improvement goals. Sanofi is arriving somewhat late to a shift that many of its rivals have been embracing for years, however. It has a lot of catch-up to do, and it isn’t starting with the industry’s healthiest balance sheet. A big chunk of its available cash will go to Synthorx, which is a particularly risky cornerstone for a new-look Sanofi. It makes sense that Sanofi might be interested in Synthorx’s lead product, THOR-707. That medicine and others in Synthorx’s pipeline could combine with Sanofi’s immune-boosting cancer drug Libtayo. “Could” is doing a lot of work there. Sanofi just paid one of the biggest biotech premiums of the past few years for a company that has generated little proof that its approach works. Hudson will have a hard time sufficiently stocking his pipeline if he’s paying exorbitant prices for very early-stage drugs. Selling some part of Sanofi’s multi-billion-dollar stake in Regeneron could help finance further deals, as could divesting the firm’s consumer unit. We’ll find out more about Sanofi’s over-the-counter intentions at its capital markets day Tuesday. Its preference for higher-margin products and separation of the unit certainly suggests that a sale is a possibility. Slimming down worked out well for Novartis, which has reaped billions in proceeds and a higher multiple by getting rid of consumer and eye-drug units. That doesn’t mean Sanofi will have the same experience. The 2018 sale of Novartis’s consumer arm was the result of a long-running saga that started five years earlier with a complicated asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline PLC under which it paid out more money than it got. Pfizer Inc.’s long-running effort to get rid of its over-the-counter arm ended with, you’ll never guess, a proceed-free joint-venture with GSK. The market hasn’t received Pfizer’s efforts especially kindly. It’s a positive sign that Hudson is taking action and putting his stamp on the company. But just because the strategic road he’s taking is well-trodden doesn't mean it will be easy. To contact the author of this story: Max Nisen at mnisen@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Max Nisen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, pharma and health care. He previously wrote about management and corporate strategy for Quartz and Business Insider.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
U.S. stock market snaps 3-day win streak as China tariff deadline comes in focus
Dow book a triple-digit loss Monday, and all three major U.S. stock indexes end lower, as investors wait on global central bank policy updates this week and a key tariff deadline on Sunday.
- Barrons.com
Sanofi’s New CEO Is Aiming for a Narrower Focus in Drug Development
“We’re moving towards prioritization,” Paul Hudson said. “We’ve said, you know, we’re going to play in the areas we really believe we can win.”
- Reuters
UPDATE 2-Sanofi ends research in diabetes, narrows units to spur profit
Sanofi SA said on Monday it would end its research efforts in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases as part of a revamp that will narrow the number of its business units in the hope of bolstering growth and profit. The French drugmaker, whose pipeline has disappointed investors in recent years, poached new chief executive Paul Hudson from Swiss pharma group Novartis in September to revitalise the company.
- Reuters
Sanofi ends research in diabetes, narrows units to spur profit
Sanofi SA said on Monday it would end its research efforts in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases as part of a revamp that will narrow the number of its business units in the hope of bolstering growth and profit. The French drugmaker, whose pipeline has disappointed investors in recent years, poached new chief executive Paul Hudson from Swiss pharma group Novartis in September to revitalise the company. Its move to ditch diabetes research - announced alongside cost savings targets - marks a major turning point for a firm whose products dominated the insulin market for nearly two decades, before it was hit by patent losses and a drop in sales.
- Benzinga
PreMarket Prep Recap: Small Biotech Firms Looking Healthy, Street Fades Macy's Downgrade
Continuing with last's week trend of consolidation in the industry, two major players Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), made acquisitions to bolster their pipeline and augment future growth. One was telegraphed by the price action at the end of last week and the other was kept under wraps. The price action last week in Arqule Inc (NASDAQ: ARQL) gave no indication that the company was going to be taken out for $20/share as it posted a modest 9-cent gain for the week.
- Bloomberg
Drug Giants Pay Hefty Premiums as Cancer-Drug Race Heats Up
(Bloomberg) -- Two of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies agreed to pay substantial premiums to acquire smaller cancer-drug makers, underlining the eagerness of the drug giants to add promising treatments to their oncology pipelines.In separate deals announced Monday, Merck & Co. agreed to buy ArQule Inc., which is developing drugs known as kinase inhibitors, for $2.7 billion, while French drug giant Sanofi agreed to buy Synthorx Inc., a maker of therapies that harness the immune system to fight tumors, for $2.5 billion.Both proposed transactions come with hefty price tags. In the ArQule deal, Merck will make a tender offer of $20 a share, more than double the smaller company’s closing price Friday. And in its deal for Synthorx, Sanofi agreed to pay nearly three times its target’s market value.Shares of ArQule more than doubled to $19.63 at 10:14 a.m. in New York, while Synthorx shares surged to $67.39, well above their Friday closing mark of $25.03.The substantial prices show that pharmaceutical giants are feeling increasingly pressed to pay up for companies that can restock their inventory of new drugs. For some time, drugmakers had balked at the lofty valuations of some publicly traded biotechnology companies.Merck Chief Marketing Officer Michael Nally, who is seen as a potential candidate to replace Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Frazier, said at a conference last week that the company doesn’t have an appetite for mega-deals, but would likely focus on transactions under $10 billion.Despite increasingly high premiums, “we’re not driven by the price of a deal,” Nally said. “We’re trying to find those spots where there’s those value-creating opportunities, and we look at everything. We’re not confined to a therapeutic area. We’re not confined to a size.”A persistent rally in biotech stocks could be forcing drugmakers to get off the sidelines before prices for appealing takeover targets climb even higher. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index has surged some 24% this year.Deals like those unveiled Monday are likely to spur more gains in the sector, which is highly sensitive to takeover trends.Also on Monday, shares of XBiotech Inc. jumped 85% after Janssen Biotech Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Co., agreed Saturday to buy rights to the company’s bermekimab, a potential treatment for colorectal cancer, for $750 million in cash.More CompetitionMerck already markets one of the world’s biggest-selling cancer treatments, the immunotherapy Keytruda, but like other large pharmaceutical companies, it has been searching for ways to expand its oncology offerings. Keytruda, which had 2018 sales of more than $7 billion, is expected to face increased competition in coming years.“We’ve been very committed to using Keytruda as our cornerstone--a foundational component to many therapies--while adding on additional targets,” Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development for Merck Research Laboratories, said in an interview. “As we diversify our oncology platform, I think we’ll follow the science more than targeting specific areas of disease.”ArQule, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, is focused on kinase inhibitor discovery. Its lead drug candidate, ARQ-531, is currently being studied in patients with a range of blood cancers. The drug will compete with a promising asset Eli Lilly & Co. acquired through its $8 billion purchase of Loxo Oncology in January, which jump-started a year of deals for new cancer compounds.“We were intrigued by the work that ArQule and others have been doing in this competitive space,” Baynes said. “The science has come to a moment in time where it looks very compelling. That was the driver moving ahead. Though the company has a number of other assets and a productive discovery engine, ARQ-531 is front and center.”In the past, Merck executives had signaled that high prices for biotech companies had been an impediment to getting deals done. But recently, the company has been more open to doing deals, and willing to pay more. Earlier this year, it spent $5.1 billion to buy the cancer-drug maker Peloton Therapeutics a day before the company was set to debut on the stock market.“We continue to think there is much more consolidation on the horizon” given the needs of drugmakers to beef up their pipelines, said Jared Holz, a health-care equity strategist at Jefferies LLC, in a note to clients.BofA Securities acted as financial adviser to Merck on the deal, and Covington & Burling was its legal counsel. Centerview Partners was financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom was legal adviser to ArQule.The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2020.Sanofi ShiftAt Sanofi, new Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson is moving to put his stamp on the Paris-based drugmaker. The deal for La Jolla, California-based Synthorx underscores its efforts to build its portfolio of innovative therapies in a fast-growing and lucrative market. The purchase marks Sanofi’s first multibillion acquisition since early 2018.On Tuesday, Hudson is expected to lay out his pipeline and acquisition priorities, along with his initial plans for the consumer-health, diabetes and other units.Investors are counting on Hudson to fire up Sanofi’s research operations and step up the search for novel products to reduce its reliance on Dupixent, a standout medicine for severe eczema and asthma. Hudson, the former pharma head at Novartis AG, is credited with launching key medicines at his previous job before becoming CEO of Sanofi in September.Synthorx’s main drug, known as THOR-707, is being explored as a treatment for multiple types of solid tumors, together with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other future combinations.Morgan Stanley advised Sanofi, which used Weil, Gotshal & Manges as its law firm. Synthorx’s advisers were Centerview Partners LLC and Cooley LLP.(Updates stock-price information in fourth paragraph, adds quotes from executives throughout)\--With assistance from Cristin Flanagan and Ben Scent.To contact the reporters on this story: Riley Griffin in New York at rgriffin42@bloomberg.net;James Paton in London at jpaton4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, ;Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark SchoifetFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
Merger Monday, Biotech Edition: MRK, SNY, ARQL, THOR & More
Large-cap pharmaceutical companies are putting their assets to work in the biotech space, particularly in cancer treatment (oncology).
