Sanofi and AstraZeneca agree compound library swap
They are exchanging more than 200,000 chemical compounds to speed up the development of new drugs
Sanofi and AstraZeneca have agreed to share 210,000 compounds from their respective libraries in what Sanofi calls an 'open innovation model' of collaboration, in the hope that it could lead to new treatments for disease.
The deal, the biggest of its kind among major pharmaceutical groups, will allow the Sanofi of France and AstraZeneca in the UK to screen a broader, more diverse chemical space as the starting point in the search for new, small-molecule medicines.
No payments will be made by either firm and they will each have full rights to independently develop any compounds without restrictions on targeted disease areas.
The companies have selected the compounds to exchange based on differences from those previously existing in their own libraries. Chemical structures and synthetic procedures will be shared to facilitate the use of these compounds. They will be exchanged in sufficient quantity to enable the receiving company to carry out high throughput screening (HTS) for several years to determine whether they are active against specific biological targets.
'Sanofi is committed to open innovation in our R&D platforms because we recognise that collaboration is the foundation of every medical breakthrough,' said Elias Zerhouni, President, Global R&D, Sanofi.
'We are happy to work with other companies if it will speed the discovery of new life-saving or life-enhancing therapies for patients. We believe that this collaboration will increase our capacity to deliver innovative solutions that have the potential to add significant medical value and transform lives.'
'This is a highly innovative agreement which speaks to our open innovation approach,' said Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines & Early Development at AstraZeneca. 'We have worked hard to enrich our compound library in recent years and this exchange, which is by far the largest we have achieved, enables us to significantly increase its diversity. Most importantly, it will accelerate our ability to identify unique starting points that could become new medicines for patients.'
