AstraZeneca : Gates Foundation invests $40 million in UK immunotherapy company

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to invest up to $40 million (29.41 million pounds) in privately held British biotech company Immunocore to support its development of immunotherapies for infectious diseases.

Oxford-based Immunocore has so far concentrated on developing its T-cell receptor medicines to fight cancer, where it has collaborations with Roche (>> Roche Holding Ltd.), GlaxoSmithKline (>> GlaxoSmithKline), AstraZeneca (>> AstraZeneca) and Eli Lilly (>> Eli Lilly and Company).

The tie-up with the Gates Foundation will extend the work into finding and developing new treatments for tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious diseases.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)

Stocks treated in this article : Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, Roche Holding Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline