Dec 24 (Reuters) - Sanofi will buy U.S. vaccines company Dynavax Technologies for around $2.2 billion (1.9 billion euros), expanding its vaccine portfolio, the French drugmaker said on Wednesday.
The drugmaker has made a string of acquisitions this year, as it looks to diversify growth beyond its blockbuster asthma drug Dupixent. It bought British private biotech firm ViceBio for $1.5 billion in July.
Sanofi will pay $15.50 per share in cash, representing a 39% premium over Dynavax's Tuesday closing
price and a 46% premium over its three-month volume-weighted average price.
The deal gives Sanofi access to Dynavax's hepatitis B vaccine, approved in the U.S., and an experimental shingles vaccine in early-stage testing.
In August, Dynavax said its shingles vaccine generated a similar immune response to GSK's blockbuster shot Shingrix, while showing a better safety profile, in an early-to-mid-stage study.
Sanofi expected to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of 2026 and said it would use available cash. The deal would not affect its 2025 financial outlook, it added.
Separately, Sanofi said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had declined to approve its experimental drug tolebrutinib to treat patients with a form of multiple sclerosis.
(1 euro = $1.1789)
(Reporting by Lucie Barbier; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Alex Richardson)
