PeptiDream Inc., a Tokyo-based biopharmaceutical company (PeptiDream), announced a multi-target discovery and optimisation collaboration with Sanofi located in Paris, France. Under the agreement, PeptiDream will use its proprietary Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS) technology to generate macrocyclic/constrained peptides against multiple targets of interest selected by Sanofi.

Sanofi will have the right to develop and commercialise all therapeutic peptides resulting from the collaboration. PeptiDream will receive an undisclosed upfront payment, research funding and will be eligible for payments associated with the achievement of certain preclinical and clinical development milestones. In addition, PeptiDream is eligible to receive royalties on sales of any products that arise from the collaboration.

“We are very excited to begin collaborating with Sanofi,” said Kiichi Kubota, CEO of PeptiDream Inc. “Our unique PDPS platform continues to prove to be one of the best hit identification platforms, especially in targeting protein-protein interactions (PPIs). No other technology can create such a chemically and structurally diverse set of functional and developable leads in such a short period of time.”

In the past five years, PeptiDream has established funded discovery collaborations with Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Daiichi Sankyo, Merck, as well as a strategic collaboration with Ipsen, all of which are actively progressing identified hits toward the clinic. In addition, PeptiDream has transferred its PDPS discovery platform for broad use to Bristol-Myers-Squibb and Novartis.