AstraZeneca inks two deals, one with Celgene another with Innate

There was a flurry of news from Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) and its US biologics R&D unit MedImmune this morning, with the announcement of two multi-million dollar research collaborations.

First, the companies have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement with US biotech firm Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) for the development and commercialization of MedImmune’s MEDI4736 across a range of blood cancers including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes and multiple myeloma.

MEDI4736 is an investigational immune checkpoint inhibitor, directed against programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Signals from PD-L1 help tumors avoid detection by the immune system. MEDI4736 blocks these signals, countering the tumor’s immune-evading tactics. Within the collaboration, MEDI4736 will be assessed both as monotherapy and in combination with other AstraZeneca and Celgene potential and existing cancer medicines. Over time, the collaboration could expand to include other assets.