19th Mar 2024 08:56
(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Tuesday said it will buy Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc, a Canada-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing "next-generation" radioconjugates.
The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company said the takeover will boost its ambition to transform cancer treatment and outcomes for patients by replacing traditional regimens like chemotherapy and radiotherapy with more targeted treatments.
Fusion's radioconjugates, which are medicines that deliver a radioactive isotope directly to cancer cells, target a prostate-specific membrane antigen, or PSMA, for prostate cancer. PSMA is a protein that is highly expressed in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or mCRPC.
The company's potential new treatment FPI-2265, currently in a phase 2 trial, could be used to treat patients with mCRPC.
AstraZeneca said it will buy all Fusion shares for around USD21.00 per share in cash plus a non-transferable contingent value right of USD3.00 per share in cash payable upon achievement of a specified regulatory milestone.
The upfront cash portion represents a value of around USD2 billion, a 97% premium to Fusion's closing market price of USD10.64 on Monday. AstraZeneca added that the deal is worth up to USD2.4 billion, including the maximum potential contingent value payments.
Fusion's shares surged 95% to USD20.70 in pre-market trading on Tuesday on the Nasdaq in New York, after closing 6.5% higher at USD10.64 on Monday.
AstraZeneca shares were 0.9% lower at 10,198.00 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.
AstraZeneca expects the takeover, which is subject to customary closing conditions, to close in the second quarter of 2024. Fusion will become a fully-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca with operations continuing in Canada and the US.
"Between thirty and fifty per cent of patients with cancer today receive radiotherapy at some point during treatment, and the acquisition of Fusion furthers our ambition to transform this aspect of care with next-generation radioconjugates. Together with Fusion, we have an opportunity to accelerate the development of FPI-2265 as a potential new treatment for prostate cancer, and to harness their innovative actinium-based platform to develop radioconjugates as foundational regimens," said Susan Galbraith, executive vice president at AstraZeneca's Oncology research & development unit.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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