CATG-No takeover yet ,but more likely a protection effort. A pick from Dec. of last year. Cambridge has an equity stake taken by AstraZeneca.
LONDON (Dow Jones)--AstraZeneca Monday announced a five-year research and development alliance with Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) in monoclonal
antibody research, principally in inflammatory disorders, including respiratory
diseases.
AstraZeneca will pay GBP75 million in cash for an issue of 10,217,983 new ordinary shares in CAT, representing a 19.9% shareholding.
The equity subscription requires the approval of CAT shareholders, AstraZeneca said.
Both AstraZeneca and CAT will contribute targets to the alliance, which will be co-funded and co-managed by the partners. A minimum of 25 programmes in
discovery will be initiated during the five-year duration of the Discovery
phase.
Following the completion of the discovery phase, the parties may each elect to continue funding programmes into development. If both parties so elect, the
programme will be jointly funded until Clinical Proof of Concept (end of Phase
IIb trials), unless either party opts-out earlier.
In addition, CAT has the option to continue to fund jointly the development of one in every five products that reach Clinical Proof of Concept up to product
launch; in this case CAT would have an option to co-promote such products in the
U.S.
AstraZeneca said it will receive the rights to opt into, and develop jointly, CAT discovery programmes existing at the commencement of this alliance and also
to opt into certain future CAT discovery programmes that CAT may independently
initiate.
CAT has limited rights to co-promote in the U.S. drugs resulting from these programmes.
CAT will be principally responsible for antibody discovery, manufacturing process development and the supply of material for exploratory clinical trials.
AstraZeneca will be principally responsible for translational biology, clinical
development programmes, regulatory filings and commercialisation. Joint teams
will be established to oversee the full discovery and development process.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires |
