AstraZeneca and MRC Technology Form Strategic Alliance in Discovery Research, Utilising Shared Compound Libraries

AstraZeneca and MRC Technology Form Strategic Alliance in Discovery
Research, Utilising Shared Compound Libraries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5 July 2010 

AstraZeneca and MRC Technology, the commercialisation company for the
UK's Medical Research Council, today announced a new strategic
collaboration to share access to their collections of compounds to aid
the search for potential new treatments for serious diseases. 

The companies will combine up to 100,000 compounds from AstraZeneca's
collection with the MRC Technology compound library of approximately
50,000 compounds.  MRC Technology will screen this larger combined
library searching 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. 

AstraZeneca and MRC Technology will retain ownership of their respective
compounds.  Individual projects chosen to go forward would trigger
option fees and the parties would negotiate further research and license
agreements. 

In the initial phase of the collaboration the combined libraries will be
screened for five biological targets selected by AstraZeneca in the
areas of cancer, cardiovascular, neuroscience, and infection. MRC
Technology will choose five additional targets to explore. 

“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,” says Jin Li, Director Global Compound Sciences at
AstraZeneca. 

Alan Lamont, Director Science & 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.  We continue to look for ways to maximise
the value of our chemical assets externally through a range of
collaborations”. 

Dave Tapolczay, CEO of MRC Technology added, “This agreement signals a
new era in pharma/academic co-operation.  We're marrying up a high
quality compound collection from AstraZeneca with MRC Technology's drug
discovery capabilities in assay development, screening and medicinal
chemistry, and applying it to exciting novel targets from some of the
world's foremost academic laboratories. We are confident this
synergistic approach will accelerate the discovery of new therapies for
serious human diseases.” 

- ENDS - 

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

About Medical Research Council Technology (MRC Technology)
MRC Technology is the exclusive commercialisation agent for the UK
Medical Research Council, working to translate cutting edge scientific
discoveries into commercial products. It is now the most successful
academic healthcare technology transfer organization in the world (AUTM
Licensing survey 2007). 

MRC Technology bridges the gap between innovative basic science and
making medicine. MRC Technology works to provide drug-like candidate
molecules to innovative new drug targets, and to translate innovative
antibody-based drug targets into potent and selective therapeutic
antibody candidates giving pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
new starting points for drug discovery and development, based on MRC
advances in science. 

For more information please visit
www.mrctechnology.org (http://www.mrctechnology.org/) 

About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business
with a primary focus on the discovery, development and commercialisation
of prescription medicines.  As a leader in gastrointestinal,
cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation, oncology and
infectious disease medicines, AstraZeneca generated global revenues of
US $32.8 billion in 2009. For more information please visit:
www.astrazeneca.com (http://www.astrazeneca.com/) 

 

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