M&A

Alexion, AstraZeneca’s Rare Disease division, has announced that it has entered a definitive purchase and licence agreement with Pfizer. The agreement covers a portfolio of preclinical gene therapy programmes and enabling technologies, and furthers the company’s commitment to advancing next-generation genomic medicines.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alexion will receive a number of novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids, which have been proven to work effectively at delivering therapeutic gene cargos for gene therapy and editing.

This agreement is intended to strengthen Alexion and AstraZeneca’s capabilities in genomic medicine, which has recently been supported by the acquisition of LogicBio. AstraZeneca additionally hopes to acquire talent from Pfizer associated with the gene therapy portfolio. Alexion’s chief executive officer, Marc Dunoyer, commented: “Today’s announcement represents another major step forward in Alexion and AstraZeneca’s ambition to be an industry leader in genomic medicine, which has potential to be transformative and even curative for patients with devastating diseases. We look forward to continuing our work to develop enhanced platforms and technologies with broad therapeutic application while integrating best-in-class expertise to accelerate promising therapeutics into the clinic.”