BRIEF—PCI profits from AstraZeneca research extension

Shares in cancer-focused Norwegian biotech PCI Biotech have risen by more than 20% this week with news that the company’s pre-clinical research collaboration with Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca has been extended.

The collaboration was initiated in September 2015 to determine whether PCI’s fimaNAc technology has the potential to enhance the delivery of AstraZeneca's nucleic acid therapeutic compounds.

This expansion is aimed at evaluating whether synergies established in oncology in vivo models are transferrable to additional disease areas.

The research collaboration runs to the end of 2019 and the companies have agreed to use the following six months to evaluate the potential for continued joint research.