AstraZeneca acquires heart and kidney drug manufacturer CinCor
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced the purchase of CinCor. The amount of the deal will be 1.8 billion dollars. The acquisition of the drug manufacturer will allow AstraZeneca to expand its presence in the market of drugs for the treatment of heart and kidney diseases.
First of all, the pharma giant is interested in CinCor’s experimental drug, Baxdrostat. It is designed to treat pathological conditions, including blood pressure problems and chronic kidney disorders.
AstraZeneca plans to combine the drug from CinCor with its own product Farxiga. The latter was initially positioned by the company as a therapy for diabetes, but long-term studies have shown that it improves conditions in kidney disease and in diagnoses of heart disorders. Following this announcement, sales of Farxiga almost halved last year to more than $3 billion. This drug occupies a niche of highly competitive pharmacological products.
AstraZeneca’s main focus is cancer drugs, from which the company generates about 30% of its profits. The second most important drugs in terms of sales for the corporation are drugs against diabetes, as well as cardiovascular and kidney disorders.
In 2022, the biotechnology business TeneoTwo entered the structure of AstraZeneca, the acquisition amounted to 1.27 billion dollars. The main reason for the purchase was TeneoTwo’s development of a therapy to treat a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The compound refers to immunotherapeutic treatments for cancer.
The move allows AstraZeneca to increase the number of its drugs targeting different types of cancers.
AstraZeneca is among the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. In addition to drugs for the treatment of cancer and heart and kidney diseases, the manufacturer offers a wide range of medications to eliminate problems of the psychiatric and neurological spectrum.
The business was founded by the merger of two companies, the Swedish Astra and Imperial Chemical Industries from Great Britain. The former was founded in 1913, and in 1949 developed an anesthetic based on lidocaine. In 1969, Astra released Seloken, which is used to treat cardiovascular diseases.
Imperial Chemical was founded in 1926, its most popular products were drugs for malaria, sleeping pills, and substances for anesthesia.
In 1993, some parts of the company became independent and merged under the brand Zeneca, which included pharmaceuticals and agrochemical production. And in 1999, businesses from Sweden and Great Britain became united as the company AstraZeneca, and it was decided to locate its head office in London.
The main strategy of the company’s development is the acquisition of various pharmaceutical manufacturers, whose products are interesting from a financial and competitive point of view. In 2014, Pfizer Corporation wanted to buy AstraZeneca for more than 69 billion pounds, but the latter refused the deal.
