Achilles Therapeutics Sells Technology Assets to AstraZeneca for $12 Million

Achilles Therapeutics shares were up 1.1% Tuesday morning after the company said it sold certain technology assets to AstraZeneca for $12 million.

The company said it transferred a commercial license of proprietary data and samples from the TRACERx non-small cell lung cancer study to AstraZeneca.

Achilles said the sale concludes a strategic review it had first announced in September. The company said it now plans to further reduce its employee headcount and decrease the size of its board.

London stocks edged higher in a quiet half-day session ahead of the Christmas break, with the FTSE 100 up 0.44% on Tuesday's close, as local healthcare companies dominated the headlines.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Hikma Pharmaceuticals' generic drug referencing Novo Nordisk's diabetes treatment Victoza. The UK pharmaceutical company was up 0.45% at the end of Tuesday trading.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo voluntarily withdrew their marketing authorization application in the European Union for datopotamab deruxtecan to treat adults with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, following feedback from a European Medicines Agency committee.

"AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo will continue to work to bring datopotamab deruxtecan to patients with lung cancer in the EU who can benefit and are committed to unlocking the potential of this medicine in lung cancer through our robust clinical development program which includes seven pivotal trials in various lung cancer settings," said the British drugmaker, which gained 0.19%.

Vistry Group plunged 15.98% after the British residential property developer slashed its outlook for full-year 2024 adjusted pretax profit to 250 million pounds sterling from 300 million pounds. After the third profit warning in 2024, RBC Capital Markets reduced the price target on the stock to 4.5 pounds from 5 pounds and downwardly revised its volume and earnings expectations for 2024 and 2025.

"In our view, there remains significant uncertainty around the trading performance and the timing and scale of investor returns (dividends and share buybacks) at Vistry, and whilst auditors (or is that jury?) remain out, we would advise investors to remain cautious," according to RBC.

The London stock exchange will open again on Friday after the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo said Tuesday they have voluntarily withdrawn their marketing authorization application in the European Union for datopotamab deruxtecan, which was intended to treat advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.

The companies said the decision follows feedback from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.

The companies said they remain committed to bringing the drug to lung cancer patients in the EU and will continue their clinical development program, which includes seven pivotal trials in various lung cancer settings.

AstraZeneca and partner Daiichi Sankyo voluntarily canceled an application to market their lung cancer treatment datopotamab deruxtecan in the European Union following critical feedback from the European Medicines Agency, according to a Tuesday release.

The drugmakers had sought approval to treat adults with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for nearly 80% of lung cancer cases globally. Despite being a leading cause of cancer deaths, no antibody-drug conjugate has yet been approved to target the TROP2 protein in NSCLC tumors.

Datopotamab deruxtecan, a TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate, had earlier received breakthrough therapy designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for treating locally advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated NSCLC.

AstraZeneca and Daiichi's withdrawn application was based on the late-stage Tropion-Lung01 trial, in which datopotamab deruxtecan helped significantly improve the progression-free survival of patients compared with docetaxel. The randomized and multicentre trial recruited 600 patients previously treated with an approved targeted therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy.

Still, the companies remain committed to delivering datopotamab deruxtecan to lung cancer patients in the EU, backed by a clinical program including seven pivotal trials. Meanwhile, the EU application for the drug's use in treating hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer also remains under review.

AstraZeneca shares were up nearly 1% in London in midmorning trade.

By Najat Kantouar

AstraZeneca said it and Daiichi Sankyo decided to voluntarily withdraw the marketing authorization application in the European Union for advanced lung-cancer treatment Dato-DXd.

This decision followed a feedback from the European Medicines Agency, the pharma company said Tuesday.

Both companies will continue to work to bring Dato-DXd to patients with lung cancer in the EU, it added.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com