AstraZeneca continues to push in rare diseases
| Published October 6, 2022

AstraZeneca builds on its focus on rare diseases

Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca showed with its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Alexion that it is serious about its investment in rare diseases. Now it is following up with another acquisition in the form of the small American biotech company LogicBio. The deal, which was announced on Monday, is intended to be completed at 2.07 USD per share – a premium of a whopping 660 percent compared to Friday's closing price on the American Nasdaq.

2021's giant acquisitions by American companies Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 39 billion USD is seen as an important step for AstraZeneca effort to reach its goal of annual sales of more than $40 billion. The acquisition of Boston-based Alexion is the first major building block of a completely new branch within the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant, which will continue to be operated under the Alexion banner and focus on rare diseases. The strategy is to build a portfolio through acquisitions, but since the Alexion deal, it has been relatively quiet on the M&A front in the area – until Monday.

Building on the field of rare diseases

Then the pharmaceutical giant announced the acquisition of the small biotech company LogicBio, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, outside Boston. LogicBio has developed two genome editing and gene delivery platforms that are intended to be used in the development of new treatments for various rare genetic diseases.

I GeneRideplatform exploits cells' natural DNA repair process to achieve precise gene insertion, with the hope of achieving sustainable therapeutic protein expression levels. The Gene Delivery Platform sAAVy is a technology platform based on adeno-associated viruses (AAV) designed to optimize gene delivery across a broad spectrum of gene therapy treatments.

Strengthens AstraZeneca's research into rare diseases

A Phase I/II clinical study is currently underway with LogicBio's lead candidate. LB-001, which is based on the GeneRide platform and is being developed for the treatment of methylmalonic aciduria. Methylmalonic aciduria is a disease condition that results in the body being unable to break down certain proteins and fats, where symptoms can range from relatively mild to life-threatening.

“The proposed acquisition of LogicBio is a significant development for our growing research in genomic medicine,” comments Marc Dunoyer, CEO of Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease in a press release.

“LogicBio’s people, experience and platforms provide new scientific capabilities by adding world-class technology and expertise to our genomic medicine strategy. The scientific collaboration between Alexion and AstraZeneca has been a significant focus since last year’s acquisition and the addition of LogicBio will expand this foundational work.”

Substantial price increase in LogicBio

The LogicBio deal was not only welcome news for AstraZeneca's rare disease focus. LogicBio, like other biotech companies, has had a tough ride on the stock market in 2022, and AstraZeneca's purchase represented a fairly substantial premium to the closing price before the deal was announced - 660 percent to be exact. The acquisition is supported by the boards of both companies and the deal is expected to be completed within four to six weeks.