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Sanofi will buy the US maker of the world’s only approved treatment for a debilitating rare blood disorder for up to $9.5bn, as it seeks to boost its immunology medicine pipeline.
The French pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $9.1bn in cash plus potential milestone bonuses for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Blueprint Medicines, which is seeking to develop a drug for a wide range of immunological diseases.
The deal is one of the biggest biotech acquisitions of 2025 and comes as Sanofi seeks to boost its drug pipeline. It is heavily dependent on immunology medicine Dupixent, which accounted for almost a third of revenues in 2024 and is under patent until 2032.
The Blueprint deal was a “strategic step forward in our rare and immunology portfolios”, said Paul Hudson, Sanofi’s chief executive.
“It complements recent acquisitions of early-stage medicines that remain our main field of interest,” he added.
In 2023, Hudson outlined plans to increase spending and focus on early research and development, rather than spending on large deals.
But Sanofi’s research efforts have suffered recent setbacks, including a failed late-stage trial last week for an experimental drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that led shares to fall more than 6 per cent.
Last year, Sanofi agreed to sell a 50 per cent stake in its consumer healthcare division, in a deal that valued the business at €15.5bn. The Blueprint deal would use up financial firepower, although Hudson said Sanofi still had “sizeable capacity for further acquisitions”.
Sanofi’s $129 a share cash offer for Blueprint is a premium of 27 per cent over the Nasdaq-listed company’s closing price in Friday.
Blueprint’s drug Ayvakit is approved in the US and EU and is the only such medicine for two main systemic types of the disease mastocytosis.
Systemic mastocytosis is estimated to affect about 32,000 people in the US. The disease, caused by the abnormal build-up of immune cells known as mastocytes, can trigger many allergy-like symptoms including organ damage.
In May, Blueprint reported net revenues of just under $150mn from Ayvakit for the first quarter of this year and increased its forecast for full-year sales of the drug from $700mn to $720mn. Ayvakit was “well on its way” to meeting the goal of $2bn in revenue by 2030, said Kate Haviland, Blueprint’s chief executive.
Sanofi’s expertise in rare disease and immunology would help the two companies deliver “life-changing medicines” to more patients globally, she said on Monday.
Blueprint is developing a next-generation medicine for systemic mastocytosis, called elenestinib, as well as Blu-808, which targets a range of immunological conditions.
The milestone payments agreed by Sanofi are linked to Blu-808 clearing development and regulatory hurdles.
