AstraZeneca Dodges $200 Million Suit Over Cancer Immunotherapy

An AstraZeneca Plc oncology subsidiary defeated a $200 million lawsuit by the founders of a 2013 acquisition, Amplimmune Inc., when a Delaware Chancery Court judge rejected their bid for post-merger “earnout” payments tied to regulatory milestones for an experimental immunotherapy.

The drug candidate never hit one of the milestones, and MedImmune LLC timely paid the earnout related to a different one, Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights III found. Because the company didn’t breach either provision, it doesn’t owe the full $200 million in potential payments under an “acceleration clause,” the judge said.

The suit concerned two of the three earnouts ...