LONDON (Reuters) – AstraZeneca (AZN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to buy Omthera Pharmaceuticals (OMTH.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for as much as $443 million to build up its cardiovascular drug business, a priority area for Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker.

The acquisition of the U.S.-based specialist in fish oil-derived medicine underscores a drive by new Chief Executive Pascal Soriot to revive AstraZeneca’s fortunes through a series of bolt-on deals.

LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. government has signed an
antibiotics development deal worth up to $200 million with
GlaxoSmithKline to tackle the dual threats of drug
resistance and bioterrorism.

The collaboration, the first of its kind between Washington
and a drug company, will allow funding to move around GSK’s
antibiotics portfolio rather than focusing on a single drug
candidate.

LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) – A new wave of medicines that tap
the power of the immune system to fight cancer could become the
biggest drug class in history, with potential sales of $35
billion a year.

That bullish sales forecast by analysts at U.S. bank
Citigroup highlights the growing excitement surrounding
so-called immunotherapy after positive results from clinical
trials conducted by companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb
and Roche Holding.

LONDON (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is closing in on a site for its new $500 million home in Cambridge, with a biomedical park just south of the English city the most likely site, property industry sources said.

Moving research and global headquarters to Cambridge, with minimal disruption, is a key test for new Chief Executive Pascal Soriot as he tries to change the drugmaker’s culture and puts ground-breaking science at the center of its activities.