AstraZeneca inks cell and gene therapy deal with Cellectis

French biotech Cellectis (Euronext Paris: ALCLS) saw its shares rocket 149% to 2.24 euros by mid-afternoon trading today, on news of a collaboration an investment deal with UK pharm major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN).

The aim is to accelerate the development of next generation therapeutics in areas of high unmet need, including oncology, immunology and rare diseases, and the collaboration could be worth as much as $2.2 billion.

AstraZeneca will leverage the Cellectis proprietary gene editing technologies and manufacturing capabilities, to design novel cell and gene therapy products, strengthening AstraZeneca’s growing offering in this space. As part of the agreement, 25 genetic targets have been exclusively reserved for AstraZeneca, from which up to 10 candidate products could be explored for development.