(Corrects paragraph 6 to say "she" instead of "he")
June 2 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc wouldconsider acquiring a developer of a new type of cancer therapyaimed at supercharging the body's immune response, Bloombergquoted Chief Executive Pascal Soriot as saying on Tuesday.
An earlier version of the Bloomberg article quoted Soriot as saying that AstraZeneca would consider buying a company suchas Juno Therapeutics Inc.
Juno's shares rose as much as 15.8 percent to $61.50 on theoriginal report before falling back to $58.09 in early afternoontrading, for a rise of 9 percent.
The corrected story said Soriot was responding to a questionabout whether AstraZeneca was interested in making anacquisition in CAR T therapies, such as Juno. (http://bloom.bg/1M1J6Hh)
"As part of our science-led strategy, we'd considerpartnering with or acquiring distinctive technologies thatcomplement our pipeline," Esra Erkal-Palera, a spokeswoman forAstraZeneca, told Reuters.
"Bloomberg is citing our partnership with Juno as an exampleof the type of science - we don't speculate about individualcompanies," she said in an email.
Seattle-based Juno, among the few companies developing a newclass of immuno-oncology treatments called CAR-T cell therapies,had a market value of $4.38 billion as of Monday's close.
AstraZeneca and Juno already have a collaboration agreementto test one of AstraZeneca's cancer drugs in combination withJuno's CAR-T cell therapy, which is considered to be abreakthrough in cancer treatment.
CAR-T therapies, which directly recruit the immune system'spowerful T cells, are proving to be effective against tumors andcould soon dominate the $100 billion global market for drugsthat fight cancer.
AstraZeneca's shares were up marginally at $67.31 on the NewYork Stock Exchange after touching a low of $66.68. (Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by TedKerr)
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