Sanofi is making a 1.53 billion dollar bet on a new drug from Sino Biopharmaceutical, which has acquired worldwide rights to a novel first-in-class JAK/ROCK inhibitor that can be used in two distinct areas of the French pharma pipeline: hematology and immunology.
Sanofi will make a one-time payment of $135 million in advance to the subsidiary of Sino Biopharm (Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical) to purchase the exclusive rights to rovadicitinib from the Chinese company.
In addition to the first installment, Sanofi has committed up to $1.395 billion in potential development, regulatory, and sales milestones, and up to tiered double-digit royalties depending on the net sales of rovadicitinib.
The first, oral, drug is a JAK-ROCK dual inhibitor that provides the anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects. In February, the Chinese authorities granted rovadicitinib its first approval in treating patients with some causes of myelofibrosis, a rare variant of blood cancer.
The first approval is regarding myelofibrosis, but the value of Sanofi, or the core value of the drug in the global market, is concerned with its potential in chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), as Sino Biopharm said. In cGVHD, a phase 3 trial is being top-run in China, and the FDA has given the nod to the drug to get into phase 2 in the U.S.
In a March 4 release (local time) issued to Fierce Pharma, Sino Biopharm said that through this collaboration, it will tap into its international clinical and commercial base to unlock the potential of rovaciditinib on a global basis and reap its full potential.
The acquisition is another investment towards Sanofi’s specialty care business, which can be compared to other recent acquisitions that the company has had with Blueprint Medicines. That up to 9.5 billion deal provided Sanofi Ayvakit, a commercial product of the rare blood disease systemic mastocytosis (SM), a next-generation SM candidate, and an early-stage KIT inhibitor with prospective in immunology indications.
By blocking the JAK1/2-STAT3/5 cellular signal transduction, Rovadicitinib decreases the level of inflammatory cytokines released by myeloid cells to relieve the abnormal spleen enlargement and systemic inflammatory symptoms. At the same time, the drug suppresses overstimulated helper T cells and increases the activity of regulatory T cells, which in turn improves the drug’s anti-inflammatory property, as stated by Sino Biopharm by blocking ROCK1/2.
A study that was conducted in China indicated that rovadicitinib exhibited superior spleen responses as compared to hydroxyurea in patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk myelofibrosis. By Week 24, 58% of the patients receiving rovadicitinib had at least 35 percent reduction in spleen volume compared with baseline, as compared to 23% in the hydroxyurea group. Regarding the percentage of patients who experienced a reduction of at least 50% of total symptom score in myelofibrosis at Week 24, the rate was 61 in the rovadicitinib arm, compared to 46 in the comparator arm.
With regards to the potential of the drug in cGVHD. Phase 1b/2a: Data issued a year ago presented a best overall response rate of 86.4 percent in 44 patients who received two different dosages of rovadicitinib. The 12-month failure-free survival was 85.2%, and Sino Biopharm has reported that it is far better than approved treatments.
Regarding safety, the investigators mentioned that the drug was well tolerated and there was no dose-limiting toxicity, and no adverse event caused by the drug resulted in discontinuation.
In the case of Sino Biopharm, the Sanofi deal can be considered the first important innovative drug out-licensing deal that the company has entered into with a Big Pharma company in many years. Over a decade ago, Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical had collaborated with Johnson & Johnson on a treatment of hepatitis B, which is not a disease area of interest anymore in the U.S. pharma.
Later on, the Chinese pharma giant has licensed drugs out to smaller Western biotechs. Another Sino Biopharm subsidiary, Chia Tai Feng Hai Pharmaceutical, wrote a deal in January to transfer ex-China rights to an autoimmune candidate targeting miR-124 to artificial-intelligence-based Formation Bio.
The practice of licensing drug development projects in Chinese companies is becoming a common trend among the western biopharmas these days. The data shows that the number of cross-border licensing deals of the drugs made by Chinese biotechs rose to 93 in 2025, as compared to 42 in 2022.
Similarly, to the Formation Bio deal, the majority of Chinese companies would cut their own country out of the licensing agreements. However, according to Sino Biopharm, the Sanofi deal is quite an exception because, in this case, an established Chinese pharma company transacts all of the rights to a late-stage or commercial asset.
Being a big pharmaceutical with a half-year income of 17.6 billion Chinese yuan (approximately 2.6 billion dollars), Sino Biopharm itself has been rather prolific in terms of acquisitions as its chairwoman, Theresa Tse, is placing a greater focus on innovative drugs. Sino Biopharm had also acquired LaNova medicines (PD-1xVEGF), a partner of Merck, last year in a deal worth up to 951 million. Subsequently, in January, the corporation announced it had a bargain to obtain Hangzhou Hygieia Pharmaceuticals at 1.2 billion yuan (approximately $175 million), to acquire a small interfering RNA platform.
Sanofi Secures Global Rights to Novel JAK/ROCK Therapy
Sanofi has entered into a major global licensing agreement with Sino Biopharmaceutical valued at up to $1.5 billion for a first-in-class JAK/ROCK inhibitor, highlighting Sanofi’s continued push into innovative treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Under the agreement, Sanofi will obtain worldwide rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize the investigational therapy. The partnership reflects Sanofi’s strategy of expanding its immunology portfolio through external innovation and strategic collaborations.
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