AstraZeneca and WuXi PharmaTech extend partnership
AstraZeneca and WuXi PharmaTech are to extend their collaboration in a new three-year deal intended to increase AstraZeneca’s global collection of compounds.
The two pharmaceutical companies have been working together for the past two years in an agreement worth $14 million (£7 million).
Under the new deal, AstraZeneca will design compounds that its partner biotechnology company, which operates in China and the US, will then synthesize.
“The collaboration with WuXi PharmaTech has exceeded our expectations, delivering value to AstraZeneca beyond the cost savings in labour and materials,” said Deborah Hartman, vice-president, Lead Generation Discovery Enabling Capabilities and Sciences at AstraZeneca.
“We are looking forward to the prospect of building on this success through our expanded relationship,” she concluded.
In related news, AstraZeneca has also agreed to a new partnership with Cellectricon, a company which provides screening solutions for drug discovery.
The UK-based drugmaker will receive two new high throughput platforms, Dynaflow (R) HT systems for ion channel screening from Cellectricon as part of the deal.
