Dive Brief:
- AstraZeneca has reached a deal to acquire a group of early-stage gene therapy programs and related technologies from Pfizer, the British drugmaker’s most significant move to date in the field of genetic medicine.
- Per deal terms, AstraZeneca’s rare disease division Alexion will pay up to $1 billion to acquire the programs and novel “capsids,” the protein shells that protect gene therapies as they’re delivered into the body. AstraZeneca intends to use those capsids to develop genetic therapies with “improved safety and efficacy profiles,” the company said Friday.
- AstraZeneca will pay royalties on sales of any commercial products that arise from the deal. Alexion also intends to “welcome talent from Pfizer” who were working on the research, an area the drugmaker has cut back on in favor of more advanced gene therapy programs.
Dive Insight:
Once a bystander in the field of genetic medicine, AstraZeneca has started to make its ambitions clear over the last couple years.
The company stuck to the sidelines, while drugmakers such as Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb and Gilead made significant investments in the field of cancer cell therapy in the last decade. But it has reportedly been quietly building internal development and manufacturing capabilities, and, in the last two years, signed alliances with startups working on newer approaches.
AstraZeneca is similarly a latecomer to gene therapy and gene editing, areas in which many of its peers are well-established. But that appears to be changing following its roughly $40 billion acquisition of Alexion in 2020. That deal gave AstraZeneca — which was focused on medicines for cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes — a foothold in rare disease, a hotspot for genetic medicine research.
Since then, AstraZeneca christened a hub in Cambridge, U.K., that’s involved in cell and gene therapy research. And it swung a small deal for biotechnology company LogicBio, which gave it access to a gene editing technology and early work on rare disease treatments. The Pfizer deal adds to those efforts, adding drug candidates as well as capsids for the adeno-associated viruses that are often used to deliver genetic medicines.
The deal “represents another major step forward in Alexion and AstraZeneca’s ambition to be an industry leader in genomic medicine,” said Marc Dunoyer, the CEO of Alexion, in a statement.
Dunoyer added that the company is working on “enhanced platforms and technologies with broad therapeutic application,” but didn’t provide specifics. AstraZeneca doesn’t currently list any clinical-stage gene therapy or gene editing program in its pipeline.
For Pfizer, meanwhile, the deal is part of an effort to pare back its early-stage work in gene therapy. Earlier this year, the company revealed plans to “externalize” development by licensing out certain programs, including viral vector gene therapies. It’s focusing instead on a group of treatments in later-stage testing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and hemophilia, as well as gene-based medicines that don’t involve engineered viruses.
AstraZeneca announced the deal alongside its quarterly earnings. The company reported about $11.4 billion in revenue, beating consensus estimates as drugs like the cancer medicines Enhertu and Imfinzi outperformed.
AstraZeneca also announced Sharon Barr as its new head of biopharmaceuticals R&D, replacing the company’s longtime research leader Mene Pangalos.
For Pfizer, the deal with AstraZeneca is occurring amid executive changes of its own. The pharma this week said its new chief development officer, William Pao, was leaving to pursue opportunities “outside the company.”