Biotech firm acquires new drug candidate

New Haven’s Rallybio gets rights to develop anemia treatment

NEW HAVEN — Rallybio

Corp., a Church Street biotechnology company, has acquired worldwide exclusive rights to develop a drug candidate designed to treat patients with severe anemia from certain blood disorders.

Rallybio made an upfront payment of $3 million to acquire the drug candidate, which is now being called RLYB331, from the French drugmaker Sanofi. The deal with Sanofi calls for Rallybio to make additional payments based on achieving certain development and commercial milestones as well royalties on net sales.

Martin Mackay, Rallybio chief executive officer, said efforts to bring RLYB331 through the drug approval process should result in an initial modest expansion of the company’s workforce. Rallybio employs 45 people, he said.

“I see us adding a small number of people at first, but we hope to see a steady increase in the number of our colleagues over time,” Mackay said.

Much of the company’s focus involves asset acquisitions from other drug companies that scientists at Rallybio believe hold the most promise, he said.

“We do very heavy due diligence when we bring in assets from the outside and we set very high hurdles in determining whether to make these acquisitions,” Mackay said. “We look at many more compounds than we actually bring in.”

Large drug companies like Sanofi have such large portfolios “that they can’t develop everything themselves,” he said.

“They could simply put drug candidates like this on the shelf and not doing anything with them,” MacKay said. “But it’s much better for everyone involved, including patients who can be helped, to have these assets in play.”

RLYB331 fits the company’s focus of developing drugs to treat rare and severe blood disorders, he said.

Rallybio became a publicly traded company last July. The company’s shares, which trade under the symbol RLYB, are on the Nasdaq Global Market.