Amgen announces inflammatory bowel disease research alliance

Amgen has announced a new research collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute focusing on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The strategic collaboration will see the organisations working together to jointly discover and validate new therapeutic targets and develop novel therapies for the chronic disorder, which affects millions of people worldwide.

Bringing together experts in the fields of clinical medicine, IBD biology, human genetics, genomic technology and drug discovery, it is hoped that this alliance will yield several new advances in the treatment of the condition.

The work will include collection and analysis of patient DNA samples to identify and further validate genetic targets and biological assays to probe gene function, as well as subsequent drug discovery and development activities.

Dr Sean Harper, executive vice-president of research and development at Amgen, said: "We believe this collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute will help identify improved treatment options for these patients."

This comes after the firm agreed to work with Kinemed on the development of a new approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases last October.