AZ opens drug portfolio to academic investigators

AstraZeneca ($AZN) and the Medical Research Council in the U.K. have come up with a new approach to rope in some fresh thinking on new uses for their compounds. AZ will let academic researchers ponder new approaches for 22 of their compounds, with the MRC chipping in up to £10 million to finance the work. Both groups say the public-private initiative promises to spur faster development efforts. "We hope that in sharing these valuable compounds with academic scientists through the MRC, new discoveries will be made by exploring additional uses of these compounds," says AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan. Release