Sanofi SA made good on its plan to bear down on M&A by agreeing to buy Vigil Neuroscience Inc. for $8 per share (NASDAQ:VIGL). Included in the transaction is a non-tradeable contingent value right entitling the holder to potentially collect $2 per share more in cash, payable following the first commercial sale of the phase II-ready VG-3927, a small-molecule triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) antagonist for Alzheimer’s disease, if achieved within a specific period. Watertown, Mass.-based Vigil’s stock closed May 22 at $7.88, up $5.57, or 241%.

Among the companies to provide updates at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco was Vigil Neuroscience Inc., which has intrigued Wall Street more since the deal signed in December by Muna Therapeutics ApS, of Copenhagen, Denmark, with London-based GSK plc.

It has been previously demonstrated that genetic loss-of-function of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) impairs microglia migration, with the TREM2 R47H variant having been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) due to impaired microglia clustering and enhanced neuronal damage.