(Bloomberg) -- French drug giant Sanofi is selling a stake in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. valued at about $13 billion.

Regeneron has agreed to repurchase $5 billion of its stock from Sanofi, the companies said on Monday. Regeneron said Sanofi also plans to sell approximately 12.8 million shares through a public offering.

The announcement is part of Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson’s revamped strategy for the drugmaker. Sanofi announced in December that it would end its hunt for new diabetes and heart disease drugs, helping save more than $2 billion, and focus on fast-growing fields such as cancer.

Sanofi currently holds about 23.2 million shares of Regeneron’s stock, or 20.6% of the U.S. pharmaceutical company, the companies said. Sanofi will continue to own about 400,000 shares of Regeneron. The companies said there will be no change to their ongoing partnership.

More deals would be the fastest way to build up Sanofi’s stable of medicines and profile in cancer, analysts at HSBC wrote last year.

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