PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French drug maker Sanofi (SNYNF.PK, SNY) and MyoKardia, Inc., a privately held pharma company have agreed to collaborate on discovering and developing targeted therapies for patients with genetic heart muscle disease known as cardiomyopathies. The deal involves up to $200 million in equity investments, milestone payments and research and development services through 2018 and will support pioneering science and new treatments.
Under the agreement, Sanofi and MyoKardia will equally share development costs on the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or HCM programs after initial demonstration of efficacy in patients, while Sanofi will cover the whole development costs of the dilated cardiomyopathy or DC.
Tassos Gianakakos, Chief Executive of MyoKardia commented : 'By genetically defining HCM and DCM into several underlying rare genetic diseases, MyoKardia's candidate therapies have the potential to be developed far more efficiently than traditional cardiovascular drugs. The collaboration extends MyoKardia's competitive advantage, allowing advancement of a broad portfolio of important treatments for patients'.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX