Acer Therapeutics Announces Exclusive License Agreement With Sanofi

Acer Therapeutics Inc. recently announced it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Sanofi to acquire worldwide rights to osanetant, a clinical-stage, selective, non-peptide tachykinin NK3 receptor antagonist. Acer plans to initially pursue development of osanetant as a potential treatment for certain neuroendocrine-related disorders. Financial terms of the license agreement were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to expand our pipeline of product candidates by in-licensing the global rights to osanetant,” said Chris Schelling, CEO and Founder of Acer. “The drug perfectly fits Acer’s acquisition and development model of de-risked assets – it already has robust non-clinical, pharmacokinetic and human safety data, and based on recent studies involving antagonism of the NK3 receptor, we believe it can be successfully repurposed to treat a variety of neuroendocrine disorders. We very much appreciate the opportunity to expand our relationship with Sanofi.”

“We are pleased to sign this agreement with Acer, which illustrates our strategy of collaborating with partners who bring a credible repurposing strategy to non-core molecules in our broad portfolio,” said Alban De-La-Sabliere, Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at Sanofi. “By providing access to these select R&D programs, we can continue to support efforts to address serious unmet medical need.”

 Acer, headquartered in Newton, MA, is a pharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of therapies for serious rare and life-threatening diseases with critical unmet medical need. Acer’s pipeline now includes three clinical-stage candidates: EDSIVO (celiprolol) for the treatment of vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS) in patients with a confirmed type III collagen (COL3A1) mutation; ACER-001 (a fully taste-masked, immediate-release formulation of sodium phenylbutyrate) for the treatment of various inborn errors of metabolism, including urea cycle disorders (UCD) and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), and osanetant for the treatment of various neuroendocrine disorders. Acer’s product candidates are de-risked, having one or more of a favorable safety profile, clinical proof-of-concept data, mechanistic differentiation, and an accelerated path for development, which may include utilizing expedited programs (eg, Priority Review) established by the FDA and/or using the regulatory pathway established under section 505(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) that allows an applicant to rely at least in part on third-party data for approval, which may expedite the preparation, submission, and approval of a marketing application. For more information, visit www.acertx.com.