AstraZeneca has bumped up its stake in US biotech Moderna, which is pioneering the development of a new class of drugs made of messenger RNA, to nine percent.
The UK-listed group said it is investing a further $140 million to increase its equity interest in the company, adding to its previous stake garnered through a collaboration agreement signed back in March 2013.
The parties initially hooked up to develop medicines for cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases, as well as oncology, and subsequently signed another agreement in January this year solely focused on the development of cancer therapies.
The companies coupling AstraZeneca group MedImmune’s protein engineering and cancer biology expertise with Moderna’s technology platform in the hope of developing new mRNA-based therapies.
These enable the body to produce therapeutic protein in vivo, and thus potentially offer a new treatment approach for a wide range of diseases.
By Selina McKee
Source: Pharma Times
The companies will explore opportunities to apply Flagship’s innovative bioplatforms – an ecosystem that currently comprises 41 companies – to scientific challenges in disease areas within cardiometabolic and rare diseases and initiate research programmes based on these.
BD is expanding its long-running partnership with the blood collection company Babson Diagnostics. The two companies have been working together since 2019 on a device that can gather small volumes of blood from the capillaries in the fingertip without requiring any specialized training, and beginning with a focus on supporting primary care in retail settings.
Wednesday, Australian biotech CSL said (PDF) the regulatory review of its $11.7 billion acquisition of Switzerland’s Vifor Pharma will take “a few more months,” suggesting it won’t be able to close the transaction by June 2022 as previously expected.
