Good day for European VCs as sanofi pays €370M for Fovea

Acquisition

Sanofi-aventis is acquiring ophthalmic diseases specialist Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA for €370 million cash, including an upfront payment and clinical milestones on three compounds currently in clinical development.

Following its formation in March 2005 at the Vision Institute in Paris, Fovea raised money in two rounds in 2005 and 2008, from a syndicate of European investors including Sofinnova Partners, Abingworth Management, Forbion Capital Partners, the Wellcome Trust, GIMV, Crédit Agricole Private Equity and Vesalius BioCapital.

Fovea has built a pipeline based on finding ophthalmic applications for existing registered drugs. It sthree clinical-stage products are: FOV 1101, an eye drop which is a fixed dose combination of prednisolone and cyclosporine, currently  in Phase II for the treatment of persistent allergic conjunctivitis; FOV 2302,an intravitreal formulation of a plasma kallikrein inhibitor, in Phase I for the treatment of Retinal Vein Occlusion induced macular edema; and FOV 2304, an antagonist of bradykinin B1 receptors, active by eye drop, which is scheduled to enter in Phase I by November 2009, for the treatment of diabetic macular oedema.

“Fovea is a unique opportunity to lay the foundation stone of an ophthalmology franchise,” said Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of sanofi-aventis. “The acquisition of Fovea will create new strategic positions for sanofi-aventis in the very promising and dynamically growing ophthalmic area, [which is] driven by unmet medical needs and [the] ageing population. This acquisition furthers our strategy of accessing high-growth segments of the healthcare market, reducing our risk profile while focusing on patient needs.”

In addition to its clinical pipeline, Fovea has a technology platform that has spawned programmes in glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and aged-related macular degeneration.

Fovea will continue to be based at the Vision Institute at the National Eye Hospital in Paris, and to draw on its academic collaborators at University Pierre and Marie Curie, INSERM, CNRS and France’s National Reference Centre for Genetic Retinal Disease.

“We are extremely pleased to join sanofi-aventis as it will provide Fovea with the necessary resources and expertise needed to continue to aggressively grow our franchise and demonstrate the efficacy of our products through regulatory clinical development,” said Bernard Gilly, President and CEO of Fovea.