Harbour BioMed Enters Strategic Collaboration With AstraZeneca - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Harbour BioMed announced a global strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to discover and develop multi-specific antibodies for immunology, oncology and beyond. Also, AstraZeneca will acquire 9.15% newly issued shares of Harbour BioMed.

AstraZeneca will obtain the option to license two preclinical immunology programs and will nominate further targets for Harbour BioMed to discover next generation multi-specific antibodies. The initial phase will focus on ongoing research programs. Harbour BioMed will receive an upfront payment, near-term milestone payments, and option exercise fees for additional programs, totaling $175 million, as well as up to $4.4 billion in additional development and commercial milestone payments, along with tiered royalties on future net sales.

Separately, AstraZeneca announced an investment of $2.5 billion in Beijing to establish its sixth global strategic R&D centre together. The investment over the next five years is part of a strategic partnership with the Beijing Municipal Government and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area Administrative Office and includes agreements with three biotechs; Harbour BioMed, Syneron Bio, and BioKangtai, and follows the recent Fibrogen announcement. AstraZeneca expects Beijing workforce to grow to 1,700 employees.

Also, AstraZeneca is launching a new joint venture with BioKangtai, to develop, manufacture, and commercialise vaccines for respiratory and other infectious diseases for patients in China and around the world. This will be AstraZeneca's first and only vaccine manufacturing facility in China.

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