LibraGen signs research partnership with Sanofi-Aventis

Research partnership

LibraGen of Toulouse has signed a partnership agreement with the pharma company Sanofi-Aventis covering the use of LibraGen's metagenomics platform technology. The aim is to discover new chemical entities in microorganisms that cannot readily be cultured under conventional conditions.

The global partnership is split into two phases, the first of which is a pilot. If successful, this may give rise to a long term collaboration between the two companies. Financial terms of the agreement, based on milestones fees and royalties, were not disclosed.

Initially, LibraGen will transfer samples of microorganisms that cannot be cultured from its existing library, which Sanofi will exploit as a source of novel compounds, using LibraGen’s technology. Depending on their biological activity, these compounds may be optimised via synthetic means to enhance their properties, or go directly into drug development.

Renaud Nalin, CEO of LibraGen, said, “This contract strengthens our position in the market and provides recognition of our know-how in identifying novel, active molecules and in producing high value-added molecules."

LibraGen's technology allows us to build up our supply of natural substances, giving us access to sources of new molecules that have been hitherto inaccessible," said Jean-Pierre Maffrand, director of discovery research at Sanofi.

If the pilot phase is successful this will trigger a long term collaboration in which LibraGen will supply a large number of active extracts that have been qualified on anti infection or anti proliferation targets.

Sanofi will have the right to acquire and/or develop any of these molecules in return for the payment of milestones and royalties.

Metagenomics is a technique for identifying the gene for a compound of interest in, for example, soil or sea water samples without having to identify the microorganism that generates it. Building on this approach, LibraGen has developed technologies to identify, validate and produce high added-value enzymes and molecules for industrial, pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic and environmental applications. The company has a number of partnerships in research and production in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and fine chemistry.

In parallel with these partnerships, LibraGen's internal research is building up a pipeline of molecules with anti-infective and anti-tumour properties.