AstraZeneca Sheds Assets After its Trial Failure

by | Oct 5, 2016 8:28 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) has been on the receiving end of three different purchases in the first five days of October, selling licenses to three of its non-core assets for a combined upfront payment of $450 million. Its selling spree occurred in tandem with the announced trial failure of its blood thinner Brilinta (ticagrelor), which failed to show any benefit over the standard medication for the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD). According to Reuters, the trial failure forced the company to abandon a $3.5 billion-a-year sales target for the drug by 2023. On October 3rd, AstraZeneca’s biologics arm, MedImmune, agreed to license the worldwide rights to Allergan plc (NYSE:... Read More »

MedImmune Parcels Out an Investgational Blood Cancer Candidate

by | Apr 20, 2015 4:13 pm | Biotechnology

Last week MedImmune Ltd., the biotech arm of AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN), announced two placements for its investigational compound, MEDI4736. The first announcement was with Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO), which signed an non-exclusive agreement to test its own investigational CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell candidates with MedImmune’s programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune check point inhibitor, MEDI4736, aiming for a combination therapy. No financial details were disclosed on that, but the next day, MedImmune announced a deal with a Swiss subsidiary of Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG), worth an upfront payment of $450 million from Celgene, to investigate... Read More »

Celgene’s Busy Week

by | Apr 4, 2015 4:38 pm | Pharmaceuticals

It wasn’t until the final week in April that Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) took the title of top deal maker for the month. The single acquisition on the books as of April 24 was its collaboration with MedImmune (NYSE: AZN) on its anti-PD-L1 inhibitor MEDI4736, with $450 million in cash upfront. On April 27, CELG announced it would pay another $110 million for Quantical Pharmaceuticals, followed two days later by two smaller licensing deals with Northern Biologics ($30 million) and Agios Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AGIO) for $10 million. Then on April 30, it reported very rosy results for the first quarter, with total revenue up 20%, to $2.08 billion, and much, much more. Read More »