LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC Tuesday said its biologics research and development arm MedImmune has agreed to buy imaging and data analysis technology company Definiens for an initial payment of USD150 million plus additional milestone payments.
In a statement, the drugs giant said Definiens is a privately-held company that has pioneered Tissue Phenomics, an imaging and data analysis platform which "dramatically" improves the identification of biomarkers in tumour tissue.
"The acquisition will strengthen MedImmune's focus on the discovery of novel predictive biomarkers in immuno-oncology. It is believed that using biomarkers to select patients for clinical trials could potentially shorten clinical timelines and increase response rates," AstraZeneca said.
"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 percent of which currently has a personalised healthcare approach," it added.
The proposed transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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