Sanofi reaps first fruit of Ablynx buyout with a European OK for its lead rare disease drug
Just weeks after closing its $4.8 billion acquisition of Ablynx, Sanofi has bagged a European approval for its lead drug, caplacizumab, which treats an ultra-rare blood clotting disease.
The OK — based on a pair of Phase II and Phase III studies — marks the first regulatory validation for Ablynx’s platform tech for small “nanobodies” that are a sliver of the size of regular antibodies.
Caplacizumab treats acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP), a disorder characterized by blood clots in small blood vessels that triggers low platelet counts. Researchers found that the drug significantly reduced the time it took for the platelet counts to return to normal and lowered the the percentage of patients who died or saw the disease recur.
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