The Life Sciences team advised Dren Bio on entering into a strategic collaboration with Sanofi for the discovery and development of a next-generation B-cell depleting therapy for the treatment of various autoimmune diseases.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dren Bio will receive an upfront payment of $100 million and is eligible to receive up to $1.7 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments. The companies will collaborate on discovery and preclinical development activities, leveraging Dren Bio’s proprietary platform. Following development candidate selection, Sanofi will assume subsequent responsibility for development, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercialization efforts. Dren Bio has the option to enter into a U.S. profit/loss sharing arrangement with Sanofi. If exercised, Dren Bio will co-fund 40% of ongoing global development costs in exchange for U.S. co-promotion rights and a 50/50 share of U.S. profits and losses. Dren Bio will also remain eligible to receive milestones and tiered royalties on net sales outside the United States.
The new agreement builds on the existing relationship between the two companies, following Sanofi’s acquisition earlier this year of Dren Bio’s DR-0201 program for deep B-cell depletion.
Dren Bio is a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of novel first-in-class antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, and other serious diseases. Its lead clinical candidate, DR-01, is currently being evaluated in multiple oncology and autoimmune indications. Dren Bio’s proprietary Targeted Myeloid Engager and Phagocytosis Platform is a multispecific antibody-based technology designed to induce potent depletion of disease-causing agents by engaging a novel phagocytic receptor selectively expressed on myeloid cells. Multispecific antibodies generated from the platform are engineered to activate phagocytic mechanisms only in the presence of disease targets, potentially offering a superior safety profile over other immunomodulatory therapies. Dren Bio’s lead platform candidate, DR-0201, was acquired by Sanofi in May 2025. DR-0201, now known as SAR448501, is currently being evaluated in two ongoing phase 1 studies and has shown robust B-cell depletion, with the potential to induce sustained treatment-free remission in patients with autoimmune diseases. Its second platform candidate, DR-0202, advanced into first-in-human clinical studies in patients with solid tumors in Q2 2025. In addition, Dren Bio has built an extensive preclinical pipeline including additional multispecific antibody programs generated from its platform, targeting indications in oncology, immunology and neurology.
The Goodwin deal team was led by Erini Svokos and Katerina Stavrianidis with invaluable assistance from Bill Collins, Dan Karelitz, Susan Lee, Avi Strauss and Angela Kim.
For more information on the deal, please read the press release.