Sanofi wins backing for MS tablet

Sanofi wins backing for multiple sclerosis tablet. Photograph: Reuters

Sanofi won backing from a European advisory panel for its first multiple sclerosis therapy, the tablet Aubagio, a step forward in the French drugmaker's plan to grab a slice of the $14 billion MS business.

Aubagio, a once-daily pill, was recommended for treatment of relapsing forms of the debilitating disease by the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, the London-based agency said today.

The committee decided that the medicine's key ingredient, known as teriflunomide, couldn't be considered as a new active substance, the EMA said.

The decision not to grant new active substance status to Aubagio "isn't likely to have much of an impact", Vincent Meunier, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in Paris, who has a buy recommendation on the stock, said.

"The one risk is that a company decides to work on a generic version of the medicine, but Aubagio isn't a huge product for Sanofi."

Sanofi won US backing to sell the tablet in September.

The company has been building up an MS business since its 2011 purchase of the US biotech company Genzyme, which gave it access to Lemtrada, another experimental treatment for the nerve-damaging illness.

Sanofi needs new medicines to help offset revenue losses from generic competition to best-sellers including the blood thinner Plavix.

Aubagio is meant to treat relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the illness.

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Sanofi wins backing for MS tablet