AstraZeneca to Acquire EsoBiotec, Boosting Cell Therapy Portfolio

AstraZeneca has an agreement in place to acquire Belgium-based EsoBiotec, a biotechnology company specializing in in-vivo cell therapies (1). The acquisition was announced by AstraZeneca on March 17, 2025. EsoBiotec’s operations will continue in Belgium, with the company becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca.

According to an AstraZeneca press release, the acquisition involves an initial payment of $425 million by AstraZeneca upon the closing of the deal, which is expected to happen in the second quarter of 2025, plus up to $575 million in contingent considerations, based on development and regulatory milestones (1).

EsoBiotec’s Engineered NanoBody Lentiviral platform (ENaBL) is an in vivo approach that uses highly targeted lentiviruses to deliver genetic instructions to immune cells such as T cells, programming them to recognize and destroy the likes of tumor cells in cancer treatment, or autoreactive cells associated with certain immune-mediated diseases (1). The approach allows therapy to be administered via intravenous injection, without the need for immune cell depletion.

“We are excited about the acquisition of EsoBiotec and the opportunity to rapidly advance their promising in-vivo platform,” Susan Galbraith, executive vice president, Oncology Hematology R&D, AstraZeneca, said in the company press release (1). “We believe it has the potential to transform cell therapy and will enable us to scale these innovative treatments so that many more patients around the world can access them. EsoBiotec will accelerate and expand the impact of our recent investments and marks a major step forward in realizing our ambition to harness the full potential of cell therapy.”

The AstraZeneca release said ENaBL may offer patients access to a transformative treatment that is delivered in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the weeks that a traditional cell therapy may take (1).

“We look forward to working with AstraZeneca, a global leader in drug development, to advance our shared goal of bringing transformative cost-effective cell therapies to more patients globally,” Jean-Pierre Latere, CEO of EsoBiotec, said in the AstraZeneca release (1). “By combining our expertise and resources, we can accelerate the development of our in-vivo platform which has a novel delivery technology we believe will have broad therapeutic applicability.”

The announcement of this acquisition concludes a first quarter of 2025 that also saw AstraZeneca make a C$820 million (US$570 million) investment in Canada in January, which the company said will create more than 700 high-skilled jobs across all areas of its business, the result of a move to a larger, state-of-the-art office facility in the greater Toronto area (2). The investment, AstraZeneca said at the time, is part of the company’s plan to bring 20 new medicines to patients and achieve US$80 billion in total revenue by 2030. AstraZeneca also expects seven first Phase III clinical trial data readouts by the end of 2025.

Panelists in the latest edition of Pharmaceutical Technology®’s Behind the Headlines series discussed the effects of tariffs on accelerating near-shoring and reshoring of manufacturing to the United States, making mention of several early 2025 acquisitions, including the newly announced AstraZeneca-EsoBiotec deal (3).

Click here to watch the full March 20, 2025 Behind the Headlines episode.

References

1. AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca to Acquire EsoBiotec to Advance Cell Therapy Ambition. Press Release. March 17, 2025.
2. AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca Plans C$820 million (US$570m) Investment in Canada to Advance Growing Global Hub and Clinical Delivery. Press Release. Jan. 23, 2025.
3. Spivey, C. Behind the Headlines: Episode 13; Budget Cuts, Reshoring, and Biotech Buyouts. PharmTech.com, March 20, 2025.