British pharmaceutical giant Astrazeneca announced on Friday that it will buy a portfolio of rare disease drugs from US rival Pfizer for about $1 billion.
Astrazeneca reported on an agreement for the acquisition of a set of gene therapy treatments in the preclinical development phase belonging to Pfizer.
The pharmaceutical group indicated that “there are more than 7,000 rare diseases that are identified and it is believed that 80% are caused by genetic mutations.”
The transaction should close in the third quarter.
In addition, the group reported that it obtained a rising net profit in the first half of 3.600 million dollars and that the volume of business remained stable at about 22.300 million dollars.