Sanofi: We're looking for biotech deals

Following yesterday's investment in Regeneron, Sanofi-Aventis' Marc Cluzel (photo) reiterated the company's plans to aggressively pursue biotech buyouts. "If there is a good deal to be done, we will do it. We are very pragmatic," Cluzel told investors. Currently, only 10 percent of the drugs Sanofi makes are biologics; the company wants to boost that number to 20 or 30 percent by 2012.

Sanofi isn't the only big pharma that has shifted its focus to biotech. Pfizer has been on a year-long crusade to expand its biotech efforts, and AstraZeneca formed a massive biotech unit when it united Cambridge Antibody Technologies with MedImmune to form a biotech powerhouse. As more big developers fill their pipelines with biologics, competition for the most promising biotech drugs is going to get tough.

- see this report for more