Looking to maintain its heavyweight status in the diabetes field, Sanofi ($SNY) has just inked a deal to work on proof-of-concept studies of experimental new drugs for the disease with investigators at Brigham & Women's Hospital. In the pact, investigators for the pharma giant will work alongside experts at Harvard Medical School's prestigious teaching hospital on immunomodulatory treatments for Type 1 diabetes.
The collaboration will put Sanofi in league with some top scientists working on diabetes.
"This strategic collaboration brings further recognition to the outstanding research of the renowned Brigham scientist Vijay Kuchroo, D.V.M., Ph.D. and his colleagues including, Drs. Terry Strom and Maria Koulmanda from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and the importance of the translation of fundamental discoveries into routine clinical practice."
These kinds of academic partnerships have become a cornerstone early-stage strategy for a wide range of R&D groups in the pharma industry. Harvard, the University of California in San Francisco and others have opened their doors to industry investigators anxious for an inside look at new, preclinical treatments that might promise to go on to commercialization. And as in similar pacts, Sanofi gains the right to license the IP coming out of their work.
- here's the press release
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