(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire Gracell Biotechnologies Inc, paying about USD1.2 billion for the clinical-stage company.

The Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical company said it expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2024. Gracell is a Suzhou, China-based biopharmaceutical firm developing cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. It will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca will pay on closing USD2.00 per Gracell share, or USD10.00 per American depositary share, plus USD0.30 per share or USD1.50 per ADS "upon achievement of a specified regulatory milestone". Gracell ADSs closed up 60% at USD9.92 in New York on Tuesday.

The upfront cash portion represents a transaction value of around USD1.0 billion, with the total value being about USD1.2 billion if the milestone is achieved.

AstraZeneca said the deal "will enrich AstraZeneca’s growing pipeline of cell therapies with GC012F, a novel, clinical-stage...potential new treatment for multiple myeloma, as well as other haematologic malignancies and autoimmune diseases".

It said Gracell's platform improves T cell fitness, shortens manufacturing times, and could improve the effectiveness of other autologous chimeric antigen receptor T-cell or CAR-T treatments.

"The proposed acquisition of Gracell will complement AstraZeneca's existing capabilities and previous investments in cell therapy," said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of Oncology R&D.

She continued: "GC012F will accelerate our cell therapy strategy in haematology, with the opportunity to bring a potential best-in-class treatment to patients living with blood cancers using a differentiated manufacturing process, as well as exploring the potential for cell therapy to reset the immune response in autoimmune diseases."

Shares in AstraZeneca were up 1.0% at 10,538.00 pence

By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter

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