AstraZeneca ‘will create new jobs at CAT’

AstraZeneca intends to expand the operations of its newly-acquired subsidiary, Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), which could result in the creation of hundreds of new jobs, according to recent reports.

Britain’s second-largest pharmaceutical company bought CAT, a monoclonal antibody research company, for over 700 million pounds, earlier this year in an attempt to expand its product pipeline.

Now CAT is looking to expand by moving into new office space and widening the range of its research focus to fit to AstraZeneca’s development profile, according to a new report from Reuters.

Hamish Cameron, chief executive officer of CAT, told the news agency: “What we will do now is broaden our area of activities to reflect AstraZeneca’s disease objectives.”

“So we’ll be working in different forms of cancer, other respiratory diseases and then moving into diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular disorders of the heart and arteries and gastrointestinal diseases,” he added.

CAT recently announced a deal with the Debiopharm Group to develop and commercial SC-1, a monoclonal antibody that targets specific receptors found in gastric cancer cells.

Arguably, the company’s greatest drug discovery success so far has been Humira, the anti-TNF therapy out-licensed to Abbott Laboratories.