LONDON: AstraZeneca is paying up to $157 million, plus royalties, for an exclusive licence to develop and sell a set of pre-clinical COVID antibody therapies developed by RQ Bio, the London-based biotech said on Tuesday.

The experimental antibody therapies include those designed to target people with compromised immune systems - such as AstraZeneca’s own antibody cocktail, Evusheld, which is already approved in multiple countries, AstraZeneca recently signalled its interest in beefing up its roster of immune-focused therapies after carving out a new reporting unit in its quarterly reports entitled “Vaccines & Immune Therapies” that include its COVID products.

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The company is banking Evusheld to partially offset its rapidly shrinking sales of its COVID vaccine, which was its second bestseller last year but has struggled to compete with rivals made by Pfizer and Moderna, and has hit setbacks with production, rare side-effects and relatively limited shelf life.