AstraZeneca PLC on Saturday said that is
has agreed to buy Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion in cash
and stock, a move potentially bolstering the British drugmaker’s step into the
immunology and rare diseases market reported the Wall Street Journal.

The deal
arrives at a crucial point of time for AstraZeneca, with the company currently
being in the later stages of development of a leading COVID-19 vaccine in
collaboration with the University of Oxford. Reportedly, the scientists
associated with the vaccine have notified that it would be authorized for
emergency usage in the UK within weeks.

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The
deal comes as a part of the Pharmaceutical corporations’ blueprint of manufacturing
and distributing the vaccine among Western drug giants ahead of the decision
being taken on the regulatory approval of its own drug.

AstraZeneca,
according to WSJ, further hopes to amplify its presence in immunology with a
rare-disease unit based in Boston with help from Alexion.

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Directors
of both the organizations have approved the acquisition, which will expectedly
close in 2021.

After
years of competition and shrinking revenue from generic drugs popping up as
soon as the patents to its major drugs ran out, AstraZeneca has already
established itself firmly as a cancer-drug powerhouse.