AstraZeneca, MRC Technology renew preclinical pact

AstraZeneca ($AZN) has renewed its drug discovery collaboration with the U.K.'s MRC Technology. The pact focuses on identifying and selecting novel drug targets with the potential to become potent, selective therapeutics in the areas of oncology, inflammation and diabetes. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will search a combined library of more than 200,000 compounds. MRC Technology will be responsible for screening the libraries, hit validation and optimizing selected compounds. More