The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca bought 55% of Acer Pharma, a company that is developing a drug for the treatment of leukemia, for 4 billion dollars. The British group will immediately pay 2,5 billion dollars into Acerta Pharma's coffers while the remainder will be paid when the American authorities have given the go-ahead for testing the new drug by 2018.
The agreement, reads the press release published by the British giant, also provides for the option for AstraZeneca to acquire the remaining 45% of Acerta for a figure of around 3 billion.
The agreement for the purchase of the majority shares of the Dutch Acerta Pharma follows two other important operations by a few hours. In fact, yesterday AstraZeneca announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire the division of Takeda Pharmaceutical that deals with therapies for obstructive pulmonary diseases: the Japanese company received 575 million dollars.
Also yesterday, the British pharmaceutical giant announced that it had signed an agreement with WuXi AppTec which will bring investments to China over the next 10 years for a total of 800 million dollars.
At 10,30 AstraZeneca gains 1,56% on the London Stock Exchange.
