Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSIR), today provided an update on the status of the development and commercialization agreement with Genzyme, a Sanofi company. On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, Sanofi issued a press release, which included an update on their R&D pipeline, stating that it has "discontinued" its project with Prochymal for graft versus host disease. The statement issued by Sanofi was made without consultation with or knowledge of Osiris. Osiris has not received any notification from Sanofi regarding the discontinuation of the agreement in place between the two companies.
"Prochymal is used to treat a particularly lethal form of pediatric graft versus host disease, and to be perfectly clear, its development and commercialization efforts will continue," said C. Randal Mills, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer.
Through its legal counsel, Osiris has advised Sanofi that Osiris is treating these public statements as Sanofi's election to terminate the agreement. The agreement provides that in this instance all rights to Prochymal revert back to Osiris without compensation to Sanofi, and Osiris is free to commercialize or enter into commercialization agreements for Prochymal with other parties without restriction.
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