Six months after entering talks with U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Sanofi has closed a deal to sell a 50% controlling stake of its consumer health business Opella for 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion), the French biopharma powerhouse said on Wednesday.
As for Sanofi’s next move with its fresh injection of funds, don’t expect a mega-merger any time soon.
In its quarterly earnings presentation last week, in addressing the company’s plan after the sale of Opella, Sanofi Chief Financial Officer Francois Roger said that it will “explore external growth opportunities for bolt-on acquisitions.”
With that, Roger cited the company’s deal last month for Dren Bio’s clinical-stage bispecific antibody, DR-0201. Sanofi paid $600 million upfront for the asset and pledged another $1.3 billion attached to launch and development milestones.
“We have always been very active in the M&A space,” Roger said during the company’s quarterly call in January. “We may be a bit more in the near future due to the fact that we have a strong balance sheet.”
Roger said last week that Sanofi’s “primary focus” with the added funding is to drive organic growth through R&D and other internal investments. Roger said it will bolster its “dividend policy” and enhance its share repurchase program.
With the Opella deal, Sanofi will retain a 48.2% stake in the consumer healthcare outfit. Public sector investor bank Bpifrance will own a 1.8% stake in Opella and gain a seat on the board.
CD&R gains a company that employs more than 11,000 people in 100 countries and operates 13 manufacturing sites and four innovation development centers. Opella is the third-largest over-the-counter business in the world, selling products such as Allegra, Doliprane and Dulcolax.
With the move, Sanofi becomes a “pure-play biopharma,” it said, joining other companies in its sphere that have divested to focus on developing and marketing prescription drugs.
Other drugmakers have made similar moves over the last several years, including Novartis, GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
Sanofi’s largest acquisitions over the last few decades were a 2011 purchase of rare disease specialist Genzyme for $20.1 billion and an $11.6 billion buyout of Biogen spinout Bioverativ in 2018, which bolstered the company’s presence in hemophilia.
In recent years, Sanofi has settled for smaller deals such as a $3.2 billion acquisition of Translate Bio in 2021, a $2.9 billion buyout of Provention Bio in 2023 and a $1.7 billion deal for Inhibrx in January to gain a rare disease drug.