Astrazeneca buys tumour tech firm Definiens for $150m

4th Nov 2014 07:19

Drug giant Astrazeneca's research and development arm, Medimmune, has agreed to purchase imaging and data analysis technology company Definiens.Medimmune will pay $150m, together with additional pre-determined milestone payments.Definiens has developed a technology called tissue phenomics, which dramatically improves the identification of bio-markers in tumour tissue."Medimmune has a comprehensive programme in immuno-oncology and the identification of patients who are most likely to respond to particular therapies is critical to our ability to successfully develop new medicines," said Dr Bahija Jallal, executive vice president of Medimmune."Definiens' technology will complement our immuno-oncology approach and allow us to accelerate further our clinical programmes through its highly precise predictive and prognostic bio-marker testing."Astra said it is believed that using bio-markers to select patients for clinical trials could potentially shorten clinical timelines and increase response rates."As a result, the technology will serve as an important tool in the advancement of the most promising combination therapies across Astrazeneca's combined small molecule and biologics pipeline, around 80% of which currently has a personalised healthcare approach."Shares in Astrazeneca rose 38p or 0.85% to 4559p in early trading in London.