Cellectis (NASDAQ:CLLS) stock is taking off on Wednesday after the company announced an investment from AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN).
Cellectis and AstraZeneca have signed a strategic collaboration agreement that will see the latter investing $245 million into the former. That includes an upfront payment of $25 million and an equity purchase of up to $220 million.
The collaboration agreement has AstraZeneca planning to use Celletis’ proprietary gene editing technologies and manufacturing capabilities. It will use these for the development of novel cell and gene therapy candidates.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cellectis will see its research funded by AstraZeneca. It also covers options for milestone payments, as well as option fees for an investigational new drug (IND). Investors will note that its clinical-stage candidates, including UCART22, UCART123 and UCART20x22, will remain under its control.
André Choulika, PhD, CEO of Cellectis, said this about the news:
“This collaboration will allow us to leverage our pioneering research in gene editing and cell therapies, as well as our cutting-edge capabilities in manufacturing with the ambition to bring potentially life-saving therapies to patients with unmet medical need.”
CLLS Stock Movement Today
Following the collaboration announcement, shares of CLLS stock are seeing heavy trading today. As of this writing, more than 14 million shares have changed hands as traders buy more of the stock. For comparison, the company’s daily average trading volume is about 53,000 shares.
CLLS Stock is up 174.9% as of Wednesday morning.
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On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
