Sanofi-aventis and Scripps ally on drug research

Sanofi-aventis has entered into a new research collaboration with Scripps Genomic Medicine in order to develop new approaches to personalised medicines.

The arrangement will see the company’s research and development unit provide grants and financing to Scripps investigators, while Sanofi-aventis will benefit from access to Scripps research programmes and newly-developed tools.

It will cover up to three discovery innovation grants a year and is intended to assist Sanofi-aventis in its efforts to develop treatments in priority areas.

Dr Marc Cluzel, executive vice-president of research and development at Sanofi-aventis, highlighted the potentially “vast” improvements that genomics research can bring to patient health.

He added: “Our alliance with Scripps underscores Sanofi-aventis’ commitment to collaborating with a range of innovative partners focused on cutting-edge scientific research and development initiatives.”

Last month, Sanofi-aventis published its financial report for the second quarter of 2010, during which it saw an increase in earnings compared to the same period of last year.