AstraZeneca collaborates on compound library

pharmafile | July 5, 2010 | News story | Research and Development AstraZeneca, MRC 

AstraZeneca and the UK’s Medical Research Council are to share access to their compounds to improve their efforts to find new treatments for serious diseases.

In the initial phase of the collaboration the combined libraries will be screened for five biological targets selected by AZ in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular, neuroscience, and infection.

MRC Technology, the MRC’s commercialisation arm, will also choose five additional targets to explore.

Alan Lamont, director of science and technology alliances at AstraZeneca, said “This deal represents a novel and creative way in which we can generate more value from one of our most significant assets – our compound collection, which may ultimately lead to the development of better medicines for patients.” 

Lamont added: “We continue to look for ways to maximise the value of our chemical assets externally through a range of collaborations.”

The two companies will combine up to 100,000 compounds from AZ’s collection with the MRC Technology library, which holds around 50,000 compounds. MRC Tech will then screen this combined library and search for compounds that show activity against novel biological targets.

A joint steering committee will review these hits, and decide how to advance promising compounds that could become innovative medicines. 

Both firms will retain ownership of their respective compounds and individual projects chosen to go forward will prompt option fees and the opportunity for the parties to negotiate further research and license agreements.

Jin Li, director global compound sciences at AZ, said: “As part of our increasing drive to access innovation from external sources, there’s real value in collaborating with organisations such as MRC Technology with a track record of success in biomedical research including new areas of disease biology.

“This collaboration gives us early access to new disease understanding and related novel drug targets, allowing us to broaden the scope and choice of programmes we take forward.”

Ben Adams

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