MedImmune joins with others on $49.3 million investment into Ambit

GAITHERSBURG, Md. MedImmune Ventures, an investment group and subsidiary of AstraZeneca, has pitched in with five other groups for a $49.3 million investment into Ambit, a San Diego cancer drug company that is developing small-molecule technology to help treat cancer, according to Web site bizjournals.com.

This latest investment from MedImmune Ventures backs claims by both MedImmune and AstraZeneca that the five-year-old venture arm would remain intact after the British pharmaceutical bought the local company this summer for $15.6 billion.

“We intend to probably increase our investment and, through MedImmune Ventures, expand to small molecules,” said AstraZeneca chief executive officer David Brennan in late October at the Mid-Atlantic Bio conference in Bethesda, Md. “I expect over time, we will increase our investment in that space.”

Through the deal, which also includes seven current investors, MedImmune’s chief executive, David Mott, is one of three new members to join Ambit’s eight-person board.