Enjaymo Trades Hands Again: Antibodies and More

Sanofi is selling the global rights of Enjaymo, a treatment for cold agglutinin disease (CAD), a rare type of anemia in which red blood cells are targeted and killed by the immune system, to Italian Recordarti. The deal sees an upfront payment of $825MM to Sanofi with an additional $250MM in potential payments stemming from achievement of sales goals.

One of the many roles of the immune system is the creation of antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that circulate in the blood and upon recognizing foreign substances, like a bacteria or virus, can neutralize them. You might have heard about antibodies in regard to COVID-19 testing. COVID-19 Antibody tests work by sampling blood from an individual to see if that individual's immune system has created antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. While the test is unable to determine whether or not an individual currently has COVID-19, it does determine whether or not the body’s immune system has a way to recognize and target the virus responsible for COVID. It is important to note that antibodies do not guarantee immunity– to read more about COVID-19 antibody tests, click here. For individuals with CAD, certain mutated antibodies target healthy red blood cells leading to anemia. Anemia, the lack of healthy red blood cells, prevents the delivery of oxygen to the body’s tissues which can result in serious health complications ranging from dizziness to, although rare, death. Enjaymo works by targeting the protein responsible for activating the immune response that leads to the destruction of healthy red blood cells, preventing anemia from occurring.

• CAD is a rare disease that affects about one out of every million people. Recordati, the purchaser of Enjaymo, specializes in rare disease therapeutics so the addition of Enjaymo to their growing portfolio of rare disease drugs makes sense.

Approved in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, Enjaymo saw a long journey from initial synthesis to being owned by Recordati. Originally receiving FDA approval in 2022, the medicine was developed by iPerain which sold their neurodegenerative disease work to Bristol Myers Squibb in 2014. The immunology branch of iPierian was placed into offshoot True North Therapeutics, later purchased by Bioverativ, a subsidiary of Biogen, in 2017. One year later, Sanofi’s acquisition of Bioverativ for $11 billion saw the addition of Enjaymo to Sanofi’s growing rare disease portfolio.

Enjaymo brought revenues of roughly $108MM from September 2023 to August 2024. Recordati is optimistic about the potential for Enjaymo with predictions of $150MM in revenue for FY 2025 and peak sales of anywhere from $270MM to $330MM.

Sanofi has undergone a large sale of their therapeutic portfolio in recent years. 11 central nervous system (CNS) therapeutics were sold to Pharmanovia shortly after 15 other CNS drugs were sold to Neuraxpharm in 2022. The large sell-off of Sanofi’s portfolio reflects CEO Paul Hudson’s plans to grow the company and improve internal R&D.

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