Bristol-Myers Squibb and Tsinghua University announce partnership

Bristol-Myers Squibb has entered into a new multi-year strategic partnership with the Tsinghua University of Beijing.

The pharmaceutical company will be funding research efforts at the Chinese university's school of life sciences, focusing on the identification of novel targets in oncology and immunoscience.

In addition, the partnership will focus on structural biology research, a process involving mapping the 3D protein structure of biological molecular targets to serve as the basis for future drug discovery projects.

This will be the first time that Bristol-Myers Squibb has entered into a China-based discovery collaboration, with the resulting research to benefit patients around the world.

Dr Francis Cuss, senior vice-president for research at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: "We are delighted to be working with Tsinghua University, a world-renowned and highly esteemed research-based academic institution with expertise in target identification and structural biology that will support the discovery of new medicines."

Earlier this year, the firm announced a new alliance with the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, which will initially focus on the development of an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug.