Sanofi will elim­i­nate 670 jobs in France; Mod­er­na gets FDA or­phan sta­tus for pre­clin­i­cal as­set

→ Fresh off or­ches­trat­ing the biggest biotech IPO in his­to­ry, Mod­er­na Ther­a­peu­tics $MR­NA has re­ceived a pat on the back from the FDA by grant­i­ng or­phan drug sta­tus to the com­pa­ny’s pre­clin­i­cal drug mR­NA-3927. It’s to be in­ves­ti­gat­ed for pro­pi­onic acidemia, a rare, in­her­it­ed con­di­tion in which the body is un­able to process cer­tain pro­teins and fats prop­er­ly.

→ Af­ter swap­ping top ex­ecs with Bay­er in Sep­tem­ber, Sanofi $SNY has fol­lowed its Ger­man coun­ter­part in ax­ing jobs, al­though the cuts are nowhere as deep. On Wednes­day, the French drug­mak­er dis­closed to Reuters that it was cut­ting 670 po­si­tions do­mes­ti­cal­ly — on a vol­un­tary ba­sis — by 2020. CEO Olivi­er Brandi­court told in­vestors at a Lon­don con­fer­ence in Sep­tem­ber that Sanofi is forg­ing ahead with its plans to cut costs, de­spite hav­ing reached a €1.5 bil­lion cost re­duc­tion tar­get a year ahead of its fore­cast.

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