Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
The Skills-Forward Revolution:   Stretching the Boundaries of Professional Flexibility
Image
Sustainability: Business Leaders Must Secure the Long-Term Strategy Despite Short-Term Pressures
Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer

AstraZeneca would consider buying immune-therapy company: Bloomberg

June 3, 2015
Life sciences
AstraZeneca Plc would consider acquiring a developer of a new type of cancer therapy aimed at supercharging the body’s immune response, Bloomberg quoted Chief Executive Pascal Soriot as saying on Tuesday.
 
An earlier version of the Bloomberg article quoted Soriot as saying that AstraZeneca would consider buying a company such as Juno Therapeutics Inc (JUNO.O).
 
Juno’s shares rose as much as 15.8 percent to $61.50 on the original report before falling back to $58.09 in early afternoon trading, for a rise of 9 percent.
 
The corrected story said Soriot was responding to a question about whether AstraZeneca was interested in making an acquisition in CAR T therapies, such as Juno.
 
“As part of our science-led strategy, we’d consider partnering with or acquiring distinctive technologies that complement our pipeline,” Esra Erkal-Palera, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, told Reuters.
 
“Bloomberg is citing our partnership with Juno as an example of the type of science – we don’t speculate about individual companies,” she said in an email.
 
Seattle-based Juno, among the few companies developing a new class of immuno-oncology treatments called CAR-T cell therapies, had a market value of $4.38 billion as of Monday’s close.
 
AstraZeneca and Juno already have a collaboration agreement to test one of AstraZeneca’s cancer drugs in combination with Juno’s CAR-T cell therapy, which is considered to be a breakthrough in cancer treatment.
 
CAR-T therapies, which directly recruit the immune system’s powerful T cells, are proving to be effective against tumors and could soon dominate the $100 billion global market for drugs that fight cancer.
 
AstraZeneca’s shares were up marginally at $67.31 on the New York Stock Exchange after touching a low of $66.68.
 
(Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)

comments closed

Related News

July 21, 2024

CordenPharma invests €900m in peptide platform expansion

Life sciences

CordenPharma announced its largest strategic investment to date, committing to spend ~€900m over the next three years to enhance its peptide technology platform. The planned investment consists of two major expansion initiatives occurring in parallel in the US and Europe, including both existing facilities and new constructions.

Read more
July 21, 2024

DSM-Firmenich to sell MEG-3 fish oil business to KD Pharma Group

Life sciences

DSM-Firmenich has announced the sale of its MEG-3 fish oil business to KD Pharma Group, a contract development and manufacturing organisation that is active in pharmaceutical and nutritional lipids. As part of the transaction, DSM-Firmenich will obtain a minority stake of 29% in KD Pharma’s parent company O³ Holding GmbH.

Read more
July 21, 2024

Veranova appoints Cécile Maupas as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer

Life sciences

Veranova, a development and manufacturing of specialist and complex APIs for the pharmaceutica l and biotech sectors, recently announced the appointment of Cécile Maupas as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. Cécile will join the executive team and assume responsibility for business development, marketing, project management, commercial operations, and product management.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach