AstraZeneca to Acquire EsoBiotec for $1B, Expanding In Vivo Cell Therapy

AstraZeneca announced that it has made a deal to take over EsoBiotec, a biotechnology company focused on in vivo cell therapies. EsoBiotec has come up with a new way of using engineered nano-body lentiviral (ENaBL) technology to programme immune cells to destroy cancer cells. This could change cell therapy by making it take minutes instead of weeks.

ENaBL cleverly uses lentiviruses that programmes the patients’ own T cells and other immune cells to target cancer cells. This removes the need to extract, genetically modify and deplete the patient’s own immune cells. Making it simple to dose via IV, this solution addresses major issues of traditional cell therapies and increases access for patients.

EsoBiotec will be a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca and Austin. AstraZeneca will pay up to $1 billion for all the money excluding shares and will pay $425 million dollars initially and $575 million dollars later depending on the milestones.

AstraZeneca expects the deal to complete in Q2 2025 as completion is subject to regulatory approval. This will not affect AstraZeneca’s 2025 financial guidance. AstraZeneca plans to use EsoBiotec’s tech to improve its cancer and immune disease drugs and ensure they reach patients.

"We are excited about the acquisition of EsoBiotec and the opportunity to rapidly advance their promising in vivo platform. We believe it has the potential to transform cell therapy and will enable us to scale these innovative treatments so that many more patients around the world can access them. EsoBiotec will accelerate and expand the impact of our recent investments and marks a major step forward in realising our ambition to harness the full potential of cell therapy", said Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology Haematology R&D, AstraZeneca.Jean-Pierre Latere, CEO, EsoBiotec, added, "We look forward to working with AstraZeneca, a global leader in drug development, to advance our shared goal of bringing transformative cost-effective cell therapies to more patients globally. By combining our expertise and resources, we can accelerate the development of our in vivo platform which has a novel delivery technology we believe will have broad therapeutic applicability."