LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc plans to create more than 200 jobs at Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), doubling the size of the British biotechnology business it bought earlier this year.
CAT said on Tuesday the firm would extend its research into new disease areas, including those previously included in a collaboration between AstraZeneca and U.S. group Abgenix, which was bought by biotech giant Amgen (AMGN.O: Quote, Profile, Research) earlier this year.
"We'll be bringing the work that we've done with Abgenix in house," CAT Chief Executive Hamish Cameron told Reuters.
Cameron declined to put a figure on the cost of the expansion.
AstraZeneca agreed to buy CAT in May in a deal valuing the antibody specialist at about 702 million pounds ($1.3 billion).
Analysts generally applauded the move as extending the group's drive into biological medicines such as antibodies, which tend to have fewer side-effects than conventional chemistry-based medicines.
But they also said it would do little to address the short-term weakness of AstraZeneca's pipeline of new drugs, which has been hit by a string of clinical trial failures.
AstraZeneca and CAT have been working on a research programme since 2004, but are not expecting to put a product into clinical trials until 2008. The programme was initially focused on respiratory and inflammatory diseases.
"What we will do now is broaden our area of activities to reflect AstraZeneca's disease objectives," Cameron said in a telephone interview. "So we'll be working in different forms of cancer, other respiratory diseases and then moving into diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular disorders of the heart and arteries and gastrointestinal diseases."
CAT said it was leasing a new building in Cambridge, eastern England, to give it an extra 92,000 square feet of space for laboratories and office space. It plans to move in during the next 12 to 15 months.
Simon Best, chairman of Britain's BioIndustry Association, welcomed AstraZeneca's investment in CAT.
"It shows that acquisition by a big pharmaceutical company is not necessarily the end of the line for a high-quality biotech company," he said. |
