AstraZeneca Plc, the UK drugmaker, agreed to buy the Belgian cell therapy developer EsoBiotec for as much as $1 billion to further boost its cancer capabilities.  AstraZeneca will pay $425 million upfront and may spend up to $575 million more in development and regulatory milestones, the compani es said Monday.  As Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot reaps the rewards of doubling down on the competitive market for cancer medicines with blockbusters like Tagrisso, Astra is targeting the next generation of potential treatments.  EsoBiotec’s platform has the potential to transform cell therapy, according to Astra, by empowering the immune system to attack cancers. It uses targeted viruses to engineer immune cells directly within a person’s body and could allow treatment to be delivered in minutes rather than the current standard of several weeks.  Astra shares were little changed in early London trading, rising less than 1%. The stock has gained almost 15% so far this year.  Current CAR-T cell therapies require doctors to harvest cells from patients, engineer them in the laboratory and then re-infuse them into a patient. While these medicines can treat certain cancers, they are expensive and difficult to manufacture, prompting drugmakers to develop medicines that could engineer cells within the body.  EsoBiotec in January announced the start of a trial testing its experimental therapy for multiple myeloma in collaboration with China’s Shenzhen Pregene Biopharma Co. The goal is to achieve cancer-free bone marrow without requiring chemotherapy to achieve lymphodepletion as needed in traditional CAR-T treatment. Under the terms of the deal, EsoBiotec will become a subsidiary of Astra and maintain operations in Belgium. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. Prior to it, Esobiotec had only raised €22 million ($24 million). In a separate cancer deal announced Monday, Astra agreed to license a plaform to make subcutaneous drug formulations from Alteogen Inc. It didn’t disclose financial details.  This story was originally featured on Fortune.com ...read more read less