INTERVIEW-Regeneron eyes drugs for heart, diabetes, asthma

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By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The chief executive officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN.O) on Wednesday said the company is interested in widening its focus to possible treatments for cardiovascular problems, diabetes, asthma and allergy.

"We are looking more broadly with our resources and the cardiovascular area is certainly an area we have an interest in, and we can certainly also develop antibodies that might address diabetic conditions," as well as asthma and allergy, Leonard Schleifer said in an interview.

Regeneron, whose genetically modified mice produce fully human antibodies capable of blocking disease-causing proteins, has already begun preclinical trials of possible drugs to treat diabetes, asthma and allergy, said Schleifer, who founded Regeneron.

Schleifer said Regeneron expects to have cash reserves of about $850 million by the end of 2007, which he described as a comfortable cushion given that the company "burns" only $50 million to $100 million a year for research and related expenses.

In addition to developing more drugs of its own, Schleifer noted that Regeneron is obligated to put two to three new medicines into clinical trials each year under an $872 million drug-development deal reached late last month with French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA).

Schleifer said Regeneron obtained "unprecedented" favorable financial terms in the deal that Wall Street has not yet fully grasped, far beyond Sanofi's purchase of $312 million of Regeneron stock at a greater than 50 percent premium to its prior price.

"Sanofi-Aventis also gave us $85 million upfront and is giving us $475 million over the next five years, which we will use to conduct preclinical research," including to discover new medicines, he said.

"And although Sanofi-Aventis is funding 100 percent of expenses to develop all drugs coming out of our collaboration, we will get 50 percent of any profits from these drugs in the United States and 35 to 45 percent outside the United States," Schleifer said. "It is an amazing transaction."

The deal is an outgrowth of a long-standing collaboration between Regeneron and Sanofi-Aventis on a drug called aflibercept that is now in late-stage trials as a treatment for cancers of the prostate, lung, colon and pancreas.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

((Reuters Messaging: ransdell.pierson.reuters.com@reuters.net; 646-223-6034; ransdell.pierson@reuters.com)) Keywords: REGENERON OUTLOOK/

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