Amgen, Astra to collaborate on several drugs

(Reuters) – Amgen Inc and British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc announced on Monday a major collaboration deal to jointly develop and sell five biotech drugs currently in Amgen’s developmental pipeline. Under terms of the deal, Astra will make an upfront payment of $50 million to the world’s largest biotechnology company, and the companies will share costs and profits on the drugs for a variety of autoimmune, inflammatory and respiratory diseases. …