Shares of Translate Bio Inc. TBIO, +5.46% soared 29.8% in premarket trading on Tuesday after Sanofi fr:sny SNY, +0.08% said it will spend $3.2 billion to buy the developer of messenger RNA (mRNA) technologies. The U.S.-listed shares of Sanofi were down 0.1% in premarket trade. “A fully owned platform allows us to develop additional opportunities in the fast-evolving mRNA space,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudsons said in a statement. Investors are paying much closer attention to mRNA developments since the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA, -1.98% and BioNTech SE BNTX, +3.61% /Pfizer Inc. PFE, +2.69% have been authorized. Sanofi and Translate are also developing a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine; the experimental shot is currently in a Phase 1/2 clinical study. “Given the early stage of TBIO’s platform, and the company’s recent pivot into vaccines, the deal terms strike us as favorable for SNY and fair for TBIO,” SVB Leerink’s Geoffrey Porges told investors on Tuesday. So far this year, Translate’s stock has gained 58.1% and Sanofi is up 5.5%. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.18% has gained 17.0%.
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