AstraZeneca will invest $245million (£202million) in a French biotech group to drive the development of medicines across oncology, immunology and rare diseases.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant told investors it will use Cellectis’ technologies and manufacturing capacity to make new gene and cell therapy products.
The Anglo-Swedish business has been granted exclusive rights to 25 genetic targets, with up to 10 candidate products being possibly explored for development.
New agreement: AstraZeneca said it will use Cellectis’ technologies and manufacturing capacity to make new gene and cell therapy products
In turn, Cellectis can earn an investigational new drug option fee and payments related to development, regulatory and sales milestones ranging from $70million to $220million for each of the ten candidate products.
AstraZeneca will pay Cellectis an initial $105million sum consisting of a $25million upfront payment and an $80million equity investment that will grant it a stake of around 22 per cent.
It expects to expand its holding to 44 per cent when it makes a further $140million investment in the Paris-based group sometime early next year.
André Choulika, chief executive of Cellectis, said: ‘We believe AstraZeneca is the perfect match to Cellectis by providing world-class expertise in the development and the commercialisation of innovative medicines.’
Marc Dunoyer, CEO of AstraZeneca subsidiary Alexion, added: ‘The differentiated capabilities Cellectis has in gene editing and manufacturing complement our in-house expertise and investments made in the past year.’
It comes amid speculation about the future of AstraZeneca CEO, Pascal Soriot, who is reportedly considering standing down in order to spend more time in Australia, where his family lives.
At the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Madrid last week, the French-born boss denied he was planning to quit, calling the rumours ‘totally made up’.
The Times then reported that Soriot was intending to remain at the company for five more years as ‘long as I perform and deliver’.
Since taking over 11 years ago, he has transformed AstraZeneca from an industry laggard into a pharmaceutical giant by boosting R&D spending to revitalise its drugs portfolio.
Soriot has also overseen numerous takeovers, including the blockbuster £28billion acquisition of rare disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
AstraZeneca was highly praised for developing an effective coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University that was sold at cost for a significant period. Following this, Soriot was awarded a knighthood for services to life sciences.
AstraZeneca shares were 0.25 per cent up at £102.76 on early Wednesday afternoon but have still declined by around 11 per cent since the year began.
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