AstraZeneca buys majority stake of Acerta for $4B

AstraZeneca announced today it agreed to buy a 55 percent stake in privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, AstraZeneca will pay $2.5 billion up front, with the remaining $1.5 billion to be paid on receipt of the first regulatory approval for the medicine Acalabrutinib or the end of 2018, whichever comes first.

Acalabrutinib could sell as much as $5 billion a year. The drug is designed to fight relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Read more from Reuters.