AstraZeneca teams up with Sanofi to tackle key infant respiratory illness

AstraZeneca has partnered with French peer Sanofi to develop and commercialise an antibody to treat the most common respiratory illness among young children.

The FTSE 100 company's biologics research and development arm MedImmune and Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, have agreed to develop and commercialise MEDI8897, a monoclonal antibody for the prevention of lower respiratory tract illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus, the most prevalent cause of the illness among young children.

According to the US Department for Health and Human Services, respiratory syncytial virus leads to 57,527 hospitalisations and 2.1m outpatient visits for children under five on average each year and for adults aged over 65 leads an average of 177,000 hospitalisations and 14,000 deaths per year.

As part of the deal, Sanofi Pasteur will pay €120m upfront and pay up to €495m after meeting certain development and sales targets, with both companies sharing costs and split profits equally.

AstraZeneca said that MEDI8897 is currently in a phase two clinical trial in pre-term infants who are ineligible for Synagis, the current standard of care medicine, and the new development plan includes a phase three trial in healthy full-term and late pre-term infants.

MedImmune and AstraZeneca will continue to lead development activity through initial approvals, and AstraZeneca will retain MEDI8897 manufacturing activities, while Sanofi-Pasteur commercialise the antibody.

Bahija Jallal, executive vice president at MedImmune, said: "By combining our development expertise and leadership in respiratory syncytial virus with Sanofi Pasteur's significant global experience in commercialising paediatric vaccines we hope to provide an respiratory syncytial virus disease prevention approach for all infants, both term and pre-term."