Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi have joined hands to work on a project in which they will discover, develop and commercialize new antibody cancer treatments in the field of immune-oncology. As a part of the project, the companies will develop a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor.

The inhibitor is in phase 1 state and its clinical trials will start in 2016. George D. Yancopoulos from Regeneron was of the view, "The field of immuno-oncology has shown the potential to dramatically improve outcomes for patients with certain types of cancer. However, the field is still in its very early days".

George said that as per them, in order to provide best results, they need to combine multiple new therapies working on different pathways that target both in the tumor and body's immune response. He is quite positive that both the companies will be able to come up with new treatment options for cancer patients.

Sanofi will payment of $640 million to Regeneron. It will also invest $1 billion to discover proof of concept (POC) development monotherapy. Both the companies will equally fund an additional $650 million for the development of REGN2810, a PD-1 inhibitor.

Elias Zerhouni, President, Global R&D, Sanofi, said that the collaboration has proved it ability to transform cutting-edge science into groundbreaking medicines for patients. The new deal will include both monoclonal antibodies and new bi-specific antibodies. Both the companies will share worldwide profits equally.