AstraZeneca signs drug discovery agreement

AstraZeneca has signed a drug discovery agreement with Galapagos NV – the latest in a series of partnerships designed to improve the UK’s second-largest pharmaceutical company’s product pipeline.

Yesterday, AstraZeneca announced a tie-up with Pozen to develop a combination therapy for chronic pain. Today’s agreement means Galapagos’ BioFocus DPI service division will provide AstraZeneca with “hit-to-lead medicinal chemistry services” for respiratory and inflammatory drug research as part of a 650,000 euro (442,667 pounds) deal.

Onno van de Stolpe, chief executive officer of Galapagos, remarked: “Our world class medicinal chemistry expertise within BioFocus DPI will be of great use in this new collaboration and establish the basis for a potentially long term relationship.”

Dr Lars-Erik Arvidsson, vice president of research and development at AstraZeneca, added: “We are very positive about our new collaboration, and through this agreement we expect to deliver promising leads for candidate drugs.”

BioFocus DPI assists drug discovery and development through to the delivery of the first pre-clinical drug candidates. Galapagos employs 330 people, of whom 144 are PhDs.

Recent collaborations with Pozen and Abbott, as well as the purchase of Cambridge Antibody Technology, have seen AstraZeneca extend it product pipeline, in which there are only five of its proprietary drugs in phase III clinical development.

In June, AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan announced a new plan to increase the speed of the drug development process, supplemented by an expansion of currently marketed drugs.

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