) has entered into a  definitive agreement to acquire MedImmune, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD, 

), in an all-cash  transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will acquire all of  the fully diluted shares of MedImmune common stock at a price of $58 per share,  for a total consideration of approximately $15.6 billion (including  approximately $340m net cash).  

The combination of MedImmune with  AstraZeneca’s wholly-owned subsidiary Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) will  create a fully integrated biologics and vaccines business within the  AstraZeneca Group with critical mass in research, development, regulatory,  manufacturing, and global sales and marketing reach

The acquisition extends  AstraZeneca’s R&D science base to allow it to address novel drug targets  through 3 key technological approaches: small molecules, biologics and, for the  first time, vaccines. The deal increases the proportion of biologics in  AstraZeneca’s pipeline from 7 percent to 27 percent and enlarges the total  pipeline by 45 projects to 163 projects. The deal is expected to close in June  2007.

News

AstraZeneca (London, UK, www.astrazeneca.com) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MedImmune, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD, www.medimmune.com), in an all-cash transaction.