AstraZeneca acquires majority share of Acerta

AstraZeneca has bought 55 percent of privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for four million dollars. This decision was made so that the business could gain access to a new kind of blood cancer drug. 

The cost of the acquisition has hit the earnings of the company fairly hard. However, it should boost its long term growth. AstraZeneca believes that its new product could sell more than five billion dollars each year, which would boost profits as well as completing the transformation of the drugmaker's oncology business.

By 2023, the business has a sales target for the new drug of 45 billion dollars for the year. AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot says: "We are boosting a key area in our comprehensive oncology portfolio with a late-stage, potential best-in-class medicine that could transform treatment for patients across a range of blood cancers."