Covington Advises AstraZeneca in its Acquisition of EsoBiotec

LONDON—Covington advised AstraZeneca in its definitive agreement to acquire EsoBiotec, a biotechnology company pioneering in vivo cell therapies that has demonstrated promising early clinical activity.

The EsoBiotec Engineered NanoBody Lentiviral (ENaBL) platform empowers the immune system to attack cancers and could offer many more patients access to transformative cell therapy treatments delivered in just minutes rather than the current process which takes weeks. ENaBL uses highly targeted lentiviruses to deliver genetic instructions to specific immune cells, such as T cells, which programme them to recognise and destroy tumour cells for cancer treatment or autoreactive cells for potential use in immune-mediated diseases. This approach enables cell therapies to be administered through a simple IV injection and without the need for immune cell depletion.

The Covington team was led by London partners Gregor Frizzell and Daniel Pavin. The core team further comprised Ross Finnie, Babak Hakimian, and Olivia Scalise Gaspar. 

Learn more about this transaction here.