IPH Innate Pharma

By Denise Roland 

LONDON-- AstraZeneca PLC has struck a deal with a French biotechnology firm to add a promising cancer drug to its pipeline, boosting its focus on oncology as part of broader strategy to double sales in the next five years.

AstraZeneca said it would take full ownership of a drug called monalizumab, which has shown potential in treating head and neck cancer in clinical trials, as part of an expanded collaboration pact with Innate Pharma SA.

AstraZeneca will also gain access to a second cancer drug in Innate's pipeline, dubbed IPH5201, and the right to license four to-be-agreed medicines in early-stage development at the French company.

It will pay Innate $170 million upfront and potentially more in the future depending on the success of the drugs. AstraZeneca will also take a 9.8% stake in Innate Pharma.

AstraZeneca has pivoted toward cancer drug development in recent years as part of its ambition to boost annual revenue to $40 billion by 2023. The company generated $22.5 billion in sales last year.

The Innate deal will bolster a key plank of AstraZeneca's cancer pipeline: drugs, known as immunotherapies, that enhance the body's immune response to tumor cells.

Such drugs are attracting heavy investment from several big drugmakers and have had success with some hard-to-treat cancers. In addition to head and neck cancer, AstraZeneca is testing monalizumab in colorectal cancer, for which there are currently no available immunotherapies. It also plans to test the drug in other tumor types.

The deal builds on AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot's strategy of seeking better treatment results through combining cancer drugs.

AstraZeneca has had mixed fortunes on this front. Its combination treatment for lung cancer failed a key clinical trial last year, although the company is awaiting follow-up data that could overturn that result.

"The future is made of combinations," Mr. Soriot said in an interview Tuesday. "The problem is to unlock the right combination."

AstraZeneca is already testing monalizumab in combination with another immunotherapy drug. Dr. Soriot said he planned on testing IPH5201 in combination with another drug in early development at the Cambridge, England-based company.

As part of the deal, Innate will pay $50 million for the right to sell Lumoxiti, a drug developed by AstraZeneca to treat a rare form of cancer known as hairy-cell leukemia, in the U.S. and Europe. Innate will pay AstraZeneca a further $25 million if the drug hits particular regulatory and commercial milestones.

Dr. Soriot said the agreement on Lumoxti would secure the drug's long-term commercial future.

Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2018 10:16 ET (14:16 GMT)

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