Acquisition Accelerates AstraZeneca's Biologics Strategy

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. 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.