By Dina Kartit
March 13 (Reuters) – France’s Sanofi said on Monday it had reached an agreement to acquire U.S. biopharmaceutical company Provention Bio in a deal valued at $2.9 billion, or $25 per share in cash.
With this acquisition, the French pharmaceutical group intends to acquire full ownership of an innovative treatment to delay stage 3 type 1 diabetes, which affects some 65,000 people each year, according to a press release.
TZIELD (teplizumab-mzwv), approved in the United States last year, is the first and only drug indicated to delay the onset of type 1 stage 3 diabetes in adults and pediatric patients 8 years of age and older with type 1 to stage 2 diabetes.
Sanofi said it expects to complete the acquisition in the second quarter of 2023.
(Reporting by Dina Kartit; Editing by Kim Coghill; Editing in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)