By Christopher P. Singer —

AstraZeneca PLC announced on Monday that it plans to acquire MedImmune Inc. in a deal estimated to be worth about $15 billion.  AstraZeneca expects that this acquisition, in combination with its earlier acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) will place it among the top biologics companies in the world, accelerating its biologics strategy.  The company now will be able to approach its research and development strategy through well developed small molecule, biologic, and vaccine technologies.  The acquisition of MedImmune should provide several immediate benefits to AstraZeneca, including adding personnel having experience with the regulatory issues involved with Biologics License Applications; acquiring facilities having large capacity for biologics manufacturing and protein engineering; increasing revenue from sales of existing products including Synagis®, FluMist®, and anticipated sales from Numax®; and expanding its biologics pipeline from 7% to 27%.