AstraZeneca Buys Drugmaker Caelum For $500M

AstraZeneca said on Wednesday its newly acquired Alexion division will purchase the remaining equity in drugmaker Caelum Biosciences in a deal that could be worth up to $500 million, expanding its access into rare-disease treatments.

Photo Insert: AstraZeneca Cambridge R&D Centre

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said it would take forward Caelum's late-stage trial of a potential medicine to treat AL amyloidosis, a rare disease that affects the heart, kidneys, and other organs, Reuters reported.

AstraZeneca has been a leading producer of a vaccine against COVID-19, a pandemic that continues to kill millions of people worldwide. As of the last count, the pandemic has killed 4.9 million people.

The company had been engaged in a race to produce billions of doses of the vaccine along with Pfizer, a US company that teamed up with a German company to mass-produce the vaccine.

Many countries have preferred Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson jabs to the Sinovac and Sinopharm shots manufactured in China.

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