AstraZeneca to purchase Pfizer’s early-stage gene therapies portfolio
AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK) has publicized that its rare disease division, Alexion (MA, USA), is set to acquire Pfizer’s (NY, USA) early-stage gene therapy unit for $1bn.
The trade allows for the use of several innovative adeno-associated virus capsids, which have already demonstrated their efficacy as a potent method for delivering therapeutic gene cargos in gene therapy and gene editing applications. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023 and will allow Pfizer to collect tiered royalties on sales of any subsequent product release.
Marc Dunoyer, chief executive officer at Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease unit stated:
“[The] announcement represents another major step forward in Alexion and AstraZeneca’s ambition to be an industry leader in genomic medicine, which has the 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.”
Of the approximately 7000 identified rare diseases, roughly 80% of them are attributed to a genetic mutation. Genetic therapies aim to develop effective treatments or potential cures for these diseases and work by specifically targeting defective genes and addressing any errors through gene addition, alteration or inactivation.
In 2022, AstraZeneca similarly acquired another US-based company, gene therapy developer LogicBio Therapeutics for a total of $68m. AstraZeneca gained access to the company’s in vivo gene-editing platform, GeneRide, which presents a novel and accurate method for gene insertion.
Marc Dunoyer commented at the time of the announcement:
“LogicBio’s people, experience and platforms provide new scientific capabilities by adding best-in-class technology and expertise to our genomic medicine strategy […] The scientific collaboration between Alexion and AstraZeneca has been a substantial area of focus […] and the addition of LogicBio will expand this foundational work.”
AstraZeneca has recently joined the Alliance for Genomic Discovery as one of its five founding members. The alliance’s primary objectives are to expedite therapeutic development and expand the diversity of available genomic data. AstraZeneca, alongside AbbVie, Amgen, Bayer and Merck will now co-fund the whole-genome sequencing of 250,000 samples, which will enable them all access to the data for use in drug discovery and advancing therapeutic development.
