Amgen, Astra to collaborate on several drugs

Amgen Inc and British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc announced on Monday a major collaboration deal to jointly develop and sell five biotech drugs currently in Amgen’s developmental pipeline.

Under terms of the deal, Astra will make an upfront payment of $50 million to the world’s largest biotechnology company and the companies will share costs and profits on the drugs for autoimmune and respiratory diseases.

The collaboration will provide Amgen with additional resources to help advance its product portfolio and give Astra access to new medicines at a time when its own pipeline is relatively barren and it is facing competition from cheap generic versions of its big-selling antipsychotic drug Seroquel.

(Reporting By Bill Berkrot)

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(Reuters)