LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca said onThursday it had agreed to buy a 55 percent stake in privatelyheld biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4.0 billion to give itaccess to a new kind of drug for fighting blood cancers.
AstraZeneca will pay $2.5 billion upfront, with a further$1.5 billion paid either on receipt of the first regulatoryapproval for the medicine acalabrutinib or at the end of 2018,depending on which is first. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely)