Malin Corporation will receive less than 80 per cent of the $33 million (€29 million) in earnout payments tied to the 2021 sale of its stake in Kymab to Sanofi, after the French pharmaceuticals giant abandoned development of the eczema treatment at the heart of the deal.Sanofi said on Friday that it has discontinued the clinical development of the treatment, known as amlitelimab, for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, saying all the efficacy and safety evidence generated to date does not support advancing it any further. Malin said in a statement on Monday evening that it is “very disappointed” with this development as previous announcements relating to amlitelimab had been “very positive”.“This announcement will reduce Malin’s 2026 year-end valuation of its remaining interest in the Kymab contingent consideration to nil,” Malin said. Sanofi acquired Kymab, in which Malin had a just over a 10 per cent stake, for an upfront payment of approximately $1.1 billion in 2021 and up to $350 million upon achievement of certain milestones.It resulted in gross upfront proceeds of $113 million for Malin, with the potential to receive up to a further $33 million. The group used proceeds from the deal to start a programme of returning cash to shareholders as it continued to sell stakes in investee companies. Malin received $7.1 million an initial milestone payment in 2024 and had estimated at the end of last year that it would only receive a maximum of a further $7 million. It attached a $2.9 million fair value to the contingent consideration at the end of December, according to its latest annual report. The Sanofi announcement means that Malin will end up missing out on $25.9 million – or 78.5 per cent – of the maximum earnout. Malin, which floated in 2015, has returned about €390 million to shareholders in the past five years – by way of tender offers for stock and share buy-backs in the market – as gradually sold stakes in key investee companies, including Kymab, Immunocore, Poseida and CG Oncology. The fair value of remaining Malin’s stakes in investee companies was €27 million at the end of December. It is currently in gradual wind-down mode and plans to return excess cash to shareholders as it continues to offload investments.