Sanofi-aventis agrees research partnership with university

Sanofi-aventis has expanded its research capabilities with the agreement of a new collaboration deal with the Charite-Universitatsmedizin Berlin.

The new partnership will see the two bodies share expertise on a number of potentially promising medicines and treatment approaches, in order to bring them to the patient population more efficiently.

Research into the fields of stroke and inflammatory auto-immune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, will be among the first projects undertaken via the collaboration.

Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive officer of Sanofi-aventis, expressed confidence that the deal will “ultimately lead to major discoveries that will benefit patients”.

He added: “This new collaboration is consistent with our objective to increase innovation in research and development through greater openness.”

This comes after the firm announced last week that it will also be entering into a similar collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Biomedical Innovation in the coming months.