Sanofi eager to strike new diabetes drug deals

Sanofi-Aventis is engaged in ongoing discussions aimed at forging new partnerships in diabetes drug development, says the senior medical director of its diabetes unit. Ricardo Perfetti tells Bloomberg that he expects to announce a "couple" of major new collaborations in the field in coming months.

"We're very much engaged in working not only on our own ideas and our own internal pipeline but also with external potential partners," Perfetti told the business wire. At the top of Sanofi's list of partnering prospects will be any new drug that can help succeed the long-acting insulin Lantus as well as drugs that spur insulin secretion.

Sanofi has already been a busy player in the space, striking deals for Metabolex's GLP-1 therapy and in-licensing a program from CureDM Group.

- here's the story from Bloomberg