2024-01-08 13:42:27
By purchasing Ambrx, the American laboratory intends to strengthen its position in the treatment of cancer. The acquisition is expected to be completed during the first half of the year.
The American laboratory Johnson & Johnson will buy the biotech Ambrx for around two billion dollars in order to strengthen its position in the treatment of cancer, it announced in a press release on Monday.
With this operation, Johnson & Johnson will get its hands on a portfolio of molecules in development for several types of cancers. They use specific so-called “armed” antibodies (ADCs or “Antibody Drug Conjugates”), considered particularly promising.
The ADCs, manufactured in the laboratory, are coupled to an anti-cancer molecule which they will bring precisely to where the tumor is located. Ambrx’s lead product in development, ARX517, is in clinical development for metastatic prostate cancer. The biotech is also developing other molecules, including one for breast cancer.
Oncology, a promising sector for the pharmaceutical industry
The acquisition should be finalized during the first half of 2024, specifies J&J, which will pay $28 for each Ambrx share. The latter’s stock ended Friday at $13.63.
The major global laboratories, which have garnered strong revenues during the Covid-19 pandemic, are competing in oncology, which has become one of the most buoyant and lucrative sectors of the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.
Johnson & Johnson, which reported nearly $95 billion in annual sales in 2022, will report its 2023 annual results on January 23. In electronic trading before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, its title fell very slightly by 0.2% to 160.74 dollars.
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