AstraZeneca buys biotech firm Esobiotec for up to $1bn

(Sharecast News) - AstraZeneca announced on Monday that it is spending up to $1bn to acquire Belgian biotech firm EsoBiotec, which it says has the potential to "transform" cell therapy. EsoBiotec's in vivo delivery platform, administered through IV injection, is able to deliver genetic instructions to the T cells, programming them to recognise and attack cancer cells directly.

Traditional cell therapies involve removing cells from a patient before being genetically modified outside the body (in vitro) and readministered as a medicine after immune cell depletion.

EsoBiotec's platform "empowers the immune system to attack cancers and could offer many more patients access to transformative cell therapy treatments delivered in just minutes rather than the current process which takes weeks", AstraZeneca said.

The FTSE 100 firm said it would buy all the oustanding equity of Esobiotec for up to $1bn on a debt-free basis, including an initial payment of $425m upon deal closing and up to $575m contingent on certain development and regulatory milestones.

Susan Galbraith, executive VP of Oncology Haematology R&D and AstraZeneca, said: "We believe it has the potential to transform cell therapy and will enable us to scale these innovative treatments so that many more patients around the world can access them.

"EsoBiotec will accelerate and expand the impact of our recent investments and marks a major step forward in realising our ambition to harness the full potential of cell therapy."