Sanofi May Announce ‘Critical’ Diabetes Partnerships

Sanofi-Aventis SA may unveil “at least another couple critical partnerships” in diabetes in the months to come, Riccardo Perfetti, senior medical director for the drugmaker’s diabetes unit, said in an interview.

Sanofi has been signing partnerships to fill its diabetes pipeline as part of a strategy to take on Danish rival Novo Nordisk A/S, the world’s largest insulin maker. In April the Paris-based company licensed an experimental drug from CureDM Group Holdings LLC that seeks to restore the body’s ability to produce insulin. Two months later it agreed to buy rights from Metabolex Inc. for a treatment for Type 2 diabetes designed to boost production of both insulin and a hormone called GLP-1.

“We’re very much engaged in working not only on our own ideas and our own internal pipeline but also with external potential partners,” said Perfetti. He said he will meet some of them during the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference this week in Stockholm.

The French drugmaker is looking to expand areas such as the medicines that promote insulin secretion and increase sensitivity to the hormone, Perfetti said. It also may consider candidates for a successor to its best-selling product, the long-acting insulin Lantus, and for a new, fast-acting insulin, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Albertina Torsoli in Paris at atorsoli@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net.