Astellas buys UK biotech firm

21 April 2020

Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503) saw its shares edge up more than 1% to 1,774 yen, after it revealed that it has acquired Nanna Therapeutics, a UK biotech company focused on addressing age-related diseases with high unmet medical need including mitochondria-related diseases.

Astellas, through its subsidiary in the UK, Astellas Pharma Europe, has purchased all of the issued share capital of Nanna through execution of a Share Purchase Agreement.

Adding Nanna’s proprietary and advanced screening platform with new DNA-encoded chemical libraries (DELs) technology significantly bolsters Astellas’ early-stage drug development capabilities. Nanna’s unique capabilities enable the creation and rapid testing of more diverse chemical libraries. The approach enables phenotype-based screening which is not feasible with conventional DELs. It can also be applied to various assay systems including cell-based assays utilizing patient-derived cells, potentially enabling screens that are tailored to a specific disease biology.

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