France's Sanofi said on Sunday that two late-stage Phase III clinical trials of its LixiLan diabetes drug had met their targets, readying it for approval in the United States in August and Europe early next year. LixiLan consists of a single-injection combination of Lyxumia, a drug developed with Danish drugmaker Zealand Pharma, and Sanofi's Lantus. It targets patients suffering from type 2 diabetes.
By Pamela Barbaglia, Olivia Oran and Arno Schuetze LONDON/NEW YORK/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Investment bank Lazard is working with Sanofi's management to prepare a sale or listing of its Merial animal health unit, aiming to land the leading advisory job for the deal, which could value the business at up 12 billion euros ($12.7 billion), sources familiar with the matter said. Lazard is expected to win the role for the so-called dual-track process having helped Sanofi's management in the ongoing review, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Sanofi and Lazard declined to comment.
Chris Viehbacher, sacked as chief executive of French drugs firm Sanofi last year, is to join the board of PureTech, a privately owned healthcare science and technology R&D company. Boston-based PureTech's co-founder and senior partner Robert Langer said in a statement he had known the German-Canadian Viehbacher for many years “and I am very excited that we will be working together more closely now”. Viehbacher, who moved to Boston last year while he was still running Sanofi, raised the French company's multinational profile during his six years in the job by completing over $30 billion of acquisitions including that of Boston-based Genzyme.