C4X Discovery receives latest milestone payment from Sanofi
€8 million milestone payment triggered by pre-clinical progression in oral IL-17A inhibitor programme
27 May 2025 – C4X Discovery Holdings Ltd (“C4XD”), a pioneering Drug Discovery company, today announces that it has received a milestone payment of €8 million from Sanofi [EPA: SAN], reflecting further pre-clinical progress in the ongoing oral IL-17A inhibitor programme.
This is the latest milestone payment from a license agreement between the two companies, which was first secured in April 2021. Under the terms of the deal, C4XD is entitled to up to a total of €414 million in upfront, pre-clinical, development, regulatory and commercialisation milestone payments plus royalties on future net sales. Including today’s announcement, C4XD has received a total of €18 million in upfront and pre-clinical payments to date.
Under the license, Sanofi is seeking to develop and commercialise an oral therapy for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, a multi-billion-dollar market. The IL-17 family of cytokines are strong inducers of inflammation, and it is thought that a small-molecule therapy that selectively blocks IL-17A activity has the potential to treat inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis, offering an oral alternative to current injectable biologic treatments.
Emma Blaney, CEO of C4X Discovery, said: “This latest pre-clinical milestone in our agreement with Sanofi is a testament to the hard work of the drug discovery team and the strength of the partnership. We remain excited by the potential of this oral IL-17A inhibitor programme to transform treatment options for patients living with debilitating inflammatory diseases. We are proud that our innovative drug discovery capabilities continue to be recognised by global pharmaceutical leaders."
David Lawrence, Chairman of C4X Discovery, said: "The progress of the oral IL-17A inhibitor programme is a reflection of the growing commercial and scientific value of our wider pipeline. With three partnered programs and several other high value programs in discovery, including alpha4 beta7 and PAD4, this provides further validation of our differentiated approach to drug discovery. We are now planning to prepare our lead programs for clinical development.”
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Contacts
| C4X Discovery Holdings | |
| David Lawrence, Emma Blaney, Flora Shimi | +44 (0)161 235 5085 |
| C4X Discovery Media – ICR Healthcare | |
| Mary-Jane Elliott, Angela Gray, Lucy Featherstone | +44 (0)203 709 5700 |
Notes to Editors:
About C4X Discovery
C4X Discovery (C4XD) is a pioneering Drug Discovery company, combining scientific expertise with cutting-edge technologies to efficiently deliver world leading medicines. We have a highly valuable and differentiated approach to Drug Discovery through our enhanced molecular design and patient stratification capabilities, generating small molecule drug candidates across multiple disease indications focused on immuno-inflammation. Our commercially attractive portfolio ranges from early-stage target opportunities to late-stage Drug Discovery programmes.
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