The deal seeks to strengthen the drugmaker’s portfolio of respiratory vaccines and help it move on from pipeline setbacks.

The French pharma will pay $1.15 billion upfront to buy Vicebio and gain access to non-mRNA vaccine candidates against RSV, metapneumovirus and parainfluenza.

The acquisition, which will give Sanofi a combination vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus, follows the pharma’s potential $1.4 billion COVID vaccine licensing deal with Novavax last year,