Nov 29 Reuters AstraZeneca will acquire biotechnology company Neogene Therapeutics for up to 320 million, the Londonlisted drugmaker said on Tuesday, seeking to build its pipeline of cellbased cancer treatments.

Though AstraZeneca39;s oncology portfolio accounted for more than a third of the company39;s revenue last year, it does not have an approved cellbased cancer therapy and is behind rivals such as Novartis and Gilead.

Neogene39;s leading Tcell receptor discovery capabilities and extensive manufacturing experience complement the cell therapy capability we have built over the last three years, said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca39;s executive vice president of oncology research.

Cellbased treatments are a relatively new approach to treating cancer, most of which involve drawing the body39;s own immune cells and processing them in the lab to target and kill cancer cells.

Neogene39;s approach goes one step further in that its experimental Tcell receptor therapies seek to target DNA mutations specific to tumours, not only certain proteins on the surface of cancer cells.

Our expertise, clinical portfolio and platform technologies in this area combined with AstraZeneca39;s leadership in oncology and global footprint mean we are wellpositioned to translate pioneering science into novel treatments for hardtotreat cancers, said Neogene Chief Executive Carsten Linnemann.

Linnemann founded Neogene in the Netherlands in 2018 along with the Netherlands Cancer…