Astra in cost-cutting tie-up with medical researchers

AstraZeneca is to share chemical compounds with the UK's Medical Research Council to help identify potential new treatments for serious diseases.

The tie-up fits into AstraZeneca's strategy of scaling back its own drug discovery research in certain areas to cut costs and focus research and development efforts.

AstraZeneca said MRC Technology, the commercial arm of the MRC, would screen up to 150,000 compounds, made up of 100,000 from AstraZeneca's collection and about 50,000 from the MRC
library, against selected biological targets.

Initial screening would be in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular, neuroscience and infection, the drugmaker said.

Both companies would retain ownership of their respective compounds, it said, and a joint committee would review the results and decide how to go ahead with any compounds that showed promise as potential drug candidates.