AstraZeneca buys most of Acerta for $4 billion to add cancer drug

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is to buy 55 percent of privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4 billion to give it access to a new kind of blood cancer drug, boosting its long-term growth at the cost of a near-term hit to earnings.

A further unconditional payment of $1.5 billion will be paid either on receipt of the first regulatory approval for acalabrutinib for any indication in the US, or the end of 2018, depending on which is first.

The drug could be submitted for regulatory approval as early as the second half of 2016.

The terms of the deal also comprise of options, which would allow if exercised shareholders for Aceta to sell and shareholders for AstraZeneca to buy the rest of the 45% of Acerta’s shares.

AstraZeneca Plc ADR (NYSE:AZN) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the majority stake in the cancer drugmaker, Acerta Pharma. These cells can also mature into cells that produce special proteins called antibodies, which help defend the body against disease and infection.

Acerta’s acalabrutinib, a rival of Johnson and Johnson and AbbVie’s Imbruvica, may garner peak annual sales of more than $5 billion, according to AstraZeneca. Other drugmakers developing BTK inhibitors are Eli Lilly & Co. together with Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Germany’s Merck KGaA.

Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement that the deal was dependable with the British drugmaker’s drive to build up its cancer business through targeted deals.

The New England Journal of Medicine last week published a study into acalabrutinib that showed a 95% response rate in patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, the most prevalent form of adult leukaemia.

The companies expect to close the deal by the end of first quarter next year, contingent upon customary closing regulations.

Like Imbruvica, acalabrutinib belongs to a class of drugs called Burton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which work by blocking the BTK enzyme from promoting proliferation and survival of malignant cells.