AstraZeneca said on Thursday it had agreed to buy 55 percent stake of privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4 billion to give it access to a new kind of drug for fighting blood cancers. AstraZeneca believes that the new medicine Acalabrutinib, which is now in final-stage testing, could sell more than $5 billion a year. Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said the deal was consistent with the British drugmaker's drive to build up its cancer business through targeted deals and would give the company a "potential best-in-class medicine that could transform treatment for patients across a range of blood cancers”. Acalabrutinib is expected to be submitted for regulatory approval in the second half of 2016.
