AstraZeneca and Pharmaron agree drug development alliance

AstraZeneca has announced a new alliance with research and development services provider Pharmaron that will support its studies of innovative medicines.

The agreement will see Pharmaron providing AstraZeneca with discovery services in the areas of chemistry, efficacy screening, and drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, all delivered by a team of several hundred scientists.

By co-locating screening and chemistry services with a single partner, AstraZeneca will achieve greater efficiency in its drug development processes.

Pharmaron's newly opened drug discovery service centre in Beijing will act as the central hub for this collaborative work.

Manos Perros, head of AstraZeneca's infection iMed division, said: "Pharmaron scientists will be integrated into our project teams and play an important role in helping us fulfil our commitment to delivering meaningful medicines to patients worldwide."

This comes after AstraZeneca announced last week that it is teaming up with Ardelyx on the development of a new NHE3 inhibitor therapy for the treatment of end-stage renal disease and chronic kidney conditions.