AstraZeneca boosts its lung drugs power with $2bn Almirall deal

AstraZeneca has struck a deal worth more than $2bn (£1.2bn) to buy the rights to Spanish firm Almirall's lung drugs, as part of efforts to build up its respiratory-medicines portfolio.

Britain's second-largest drugmaker has announced a string of smaller deals to boost key areas since fighting off a £69bn takeover attempt from bigger US rival Pfizer in May. The firm also signed a clinical trial collaboration with the Japan's Kyowa Hakko Kirin for a study that will assess combinations of the two companies' cancer immunotherapy treatments, another key area.

AstraZeneca has said it will pay $875m upfront to Almirall and up to $1.2bn more if the drugs meet development and sales targets. It is acquiring the right to develop and sell Almirall's existing lung treatments, such as the recently launched Eklira, as well as its pipeline of new therapies. This will help fill some gaps in AstraZeneca's portfolio as key medicines come off patent.

Andrew Baum, an analyst at Citigroup said: "AstraZeneca continues to build out its business and smooth out its medium-term earnings profile with strategic, modestly sized, low-risk transactions. Today's announcement with Almirall adds complementary delivery devices and broadens AstraZeneca's respiratory portfolio within ex-US markets."

Others were more sceptical about the latest deal. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said the deal would "bolster one of AstraZeneca's growth platforms", but added: "We see a significant overlap with the recently acquired Pearl's assets, which could raise questions about AstraZeneca's strategy in respiratory."

Last year, AstraZeneca agreed to buy Californian respiratory specialist Pearl Therapeutics for up to $1.15bn, which gave it a new class of lung treatments known as LABA/LAMA drugs. Some analysts believe these will dominate the future treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which affects about 210 million people worldwide. AstraZeneca is trailing behind rivals such as GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis in the race to develop the new class of drugs.

AstraZeneca is due to report its second-quarter results on Thursday, when its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, will set out its strategy as an independent company. He has already pledged to lift revenues by three-quarters to $45bn by 2023, a target considered ambitious by many analysts.

Pfizer, for its part, said it was still considering big deals when it released quarterly figures on Tuesday, but refused to say whether it would renew its advances towards AstraZeneca. Under UK takeover rules, it would be able to do so from late August if invited back to the negotiating table by the British firm. Baum said there was a 25% chance of this happening, and noted that the companies would not have to announce this to the stock market.