APEIRON Biologics and Evotec have both received the first milestone payment from Sanofi under a 3-party alliance signed in August 2015. The milestone payment of €3 million will be split equally between the two biotech companies. The success payment was triggered when the partners successfully advanced an undisclosed, novel, immuno-oncology small molecule into late-stage pre-clinical development. 

Dr Hans Loibner, chief executive officer of APEIRON Biologics, said, “We are delighted by the progress made in our collaboration with Evotec and Sanofi. Based on our scientific findings and the mode of action, we jointly agreed to accelerate the research and pre-clinical development of this very promising molecule. The successful achievement of this milestone further demonstrates our abilities to drive innovation in the field of immuno-oncology.”

The strategic collaboration was set up to support the long-term pipeline building for APEIRON Biologics, Evotec, and Sanofi and has a potential value of over € 200 million in milestone payments and significant royalties. The collaboration includes major research and development efforts to advance a first-in-class orally available small molecule approach based on a novel target to treat solid and hematopoietic cancers by enhancing the anti-tumor activity of human immune cells.