AstraZeneca to buy 55 percent of cancer firm Acerta for $4 billion
- 8 years ago
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.
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.