AstraZeneca’s build towards becoming an immune cell therapy leader
A look back and analysis of AstraZeneca's gradual scale-up of investment in cell therapy, given the company's recent acquisition of Gracell.
Introduction
BPS is back after the holiday break! I hope all my readers had a recharging time off and are starting the new year off strong.
Before we got into Christmas, we learned that AstraZeneca (AZN) agreed to acquire Chinese cell therapy company, Gracell, for $1B. This deal was super interesting for couple of reasons. It marked the first time a US/EU-listed BioPharma acquired a Chinese BioPharma company and was also AstraZeneca’s second acquisition in cell therapy of the year.
This got me thinking about how AstraZeneca’s posture towards cell therapy has changed over the course of the last 3-4 years. The company has slowly ramped up investment, both internally and externally, in this space. It’s clear AZN believes cell therapy is a key modality for the future of medicine and wants to play a major role in it. But from the outside looking in, I got the sense that they’ve built their cell therapy footprint quite differently from their peer set. So, for today’s post I wanted to look back at what AZNs cell therapy build has been characterized by and hopefully get a glimpse into what the future may hold.
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
AstraZeneca’s Cell Therapy Buildout
I put together a rough timeline of some key actions AstraZeneca has taken in cell therapy (see image above) – some that have got a lot of publicity, and others that have maybe been under the radar. There are a few characteristics that stand out here.