Bayer HealthCare and Peking University launch new alliance

Bayer HealthCare has allied with Peking University on a three-year strategic partnership to promote translational research for drug discovery.

The comprehensive collaboration agreement has seen the two organisations create a joint research centre at Peking University, under the name Bayer HealthCare/Peking University Centre of Translational Research for Drug Discovery.

Work at this site will focus on applying basic research to drug discovery in key fields such as cardiology, oncology, haematology and gynaecological therapy. Research along the drug discovery and development value chain will also be conducted.

The centre will allow researchers in life sciences-related schools to collaborate with scientists at Bayer HealthCare Global Drug Discovery.

Professor Dr Andreas Busch, a member of the Bayer HealthCare executive committee and head of global drug discovery, said: "Strategic alliances with international innovation partners from industry and academia are an essential element of our research and development strategy and complement our own research capabilities."

This comes after the firm last month joined the not-for-profit Structural Genomics Consortium, a public-private partnership with active research facilities at the Universities of Oxford and Toronto.