AstraZeneca invests $220m in French gene-editing group Cellectis

AstraZeneca is to invest in French biopharma group Cellectis to use its gene-editing technologies to develop next-gen therapeutics in areas like oncology, immunology and rare diseases.

The collaboration and investment agreement will see AstraZeneca pay Cellectis $25m upfront in the fourth quarter, as well as an $80m equity investment, representing a 22% stake.

A further $140m equity investment will close early next year, which will see its shareholding rise to 44%.

"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," AstraZeneca said in a statement on Wednesday.

The UK-listed company has made several investments and collaborations in the past year to advance its footprint in the cell and genomic therapy market.

"The differentiated capabilities Cellectis has in gene editing and manufacturing complement our in-house expertise and investments made in the past year," said Marc Dunoyer, AstraZeneca's chief strategy officer and head of the rarer diseases unit Alexion.

"AstraZeneca continues to advance our ambition in cell therapy for oncology and autoimmune diseases as well as in genomic medicine, which has potential to be transformative for patients with rare diseases."