Roche's Santarelli: The AstraZeneca Collaboration Offers 'Know How'

In the latest sign that drugmakers are trying to save costs by working together, Roche and AstraZeneca (AZN) signed a deal to share data on early-stage drug design in hopes of speeding development. As part of the collaboration, the drugmakers will actually contribute their data to MedChemica, which specializes in scrutinizing chemical compounds for structures that can cause problems with safety or effectiveness. We spoke with Luca Santarelli, senior vice president, head of small molecule research and neuroscience at Roche, about the reasons for the deal and the potential opportunities. This is an edited version... Pharmalot: Does Roche have any other deals like this? Santarelli: Not quite like this, although we do have a number of collaborations where we are partnering in different areas. For example, we have private-public partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies and the private sector for certain areas, such as Alzheimer’s. We have one in Europe around safety and it’s in the context of the Innovative Medicine Initiative.  And there are others. But the common theme is to develop common knowledge and to help us all become more efficient. Pharmalot: What’s different about this deal then, and why is Roche is willing to try this? Santarelli: It enables us to work in chemistry, which is traditionally the most proprietary area of our business. It allows us an exchange of know-how about what’s necessary to do to improve our efficiency and optimizing small molecules...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs