Why Is French Pharma Giant Sanofi Stock Trading Higher On Thursday?

Core Insights - The U.S. FDA granted orphan drug designation to Sanofi SA's rilzabrutinib for two rare diseases: warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA) and IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) [1] - Rilzabrutinib is under regulatory review in the US, EU, and China for immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) [2] - The FDA's target action date for the regulatory decision on ITP is August 29, and rilzabrutinib has also received orphan drug designation for ITP in the US, EU, and Japan [3] Clinical Study Results - Phase 2b study results for wAIHA presented at ASH 2024 indicated that rilzabrutinib treatment led to clinically meaningful outcomes in response rate and disease markers [3] - In a phase 2a study for IgG4-RD, rilzabrutinib treatment over 52 weeks resulted in reduced disease flare and other disease markers, along with glucocorticoid sparing [4] - The safety profile of rilzabrutinib in both studies was consistent with previous studies [4] Recent Developments - The FDA recently approved Sanofi's Qfitlia (fitusiran), the first antithrombin-lowering therapy for hemophilia A or B, based on data from the ATLAS phase 3 studies [5] - Sanofi's stock increased by 3.54% to $55.86 during the premarket session following these developments [6]