AstraZeneca agreed to pay up to $630 million in upfront and milestone payments to acquire the remaining China rights to C-CAR031 from AbelZeta Pharma, securing full global ownership of the GPC3-targeted armored CAR‑T program. The deal completes AstraZeneca’s control over a therapy it already owned ex‑China and follows a 2023 arrangement that had split territory rights between the companies. AbelZeta and AstraZeneca highlighted clinical promise: a first‑in‑human China study reported an objective response rate of 56.5% across dose levels and 75% at the highest dose in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). AstraZeneca frames the move as a step to maximize C‑CAR031’s global reach and to deploy its TGFβRII dominant‑negative armoring platform against solid tumors with high unmet need. The transaction matters to cell‑therapy developers and investors because it shows Big Pharma is still willing to pay for late‑stage or clinically encouraging solid‑tumor CAR‑T assets and to consolidate rights to speed global development and commercialization.