Astra Agrees to Pay up to $1.3 Billion for Biotech TeneoTwo (1)

AstraZeneca Plc agreed to buy the closely held US biotech TeneoTwo Inc. for as much as $1.3 billion, almost all of it in milestone payments, to gain an experimental drug for lymphomas.

The medicine, called TNB-486, is in early-stage clinical trials, Astra said in a statement Tuesday. It belongs to a class of therapeutic antibodies known as T-cell engagers -- molecules engineered to redirect the immune system’s T-cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.

AstraZeneca has been pushing ahead to expand its treatment offering in cancer and said the new medicine could build on the success of Calquence, its leukemia ...