AstraZeneca and Sanofi agree to share chemical compounds

French and British pharmaceutical giants Sanofi and AstraZeneca have agreed a direct exchange of 210,000 compounds from their respective, proprietary compound libraries.

The companies said on Friday that the deal would enhance the chemical diversity of the compound collections and allow each of them to screen a broader, more diverse chemical space as the starting point in the search for new, small-molecule medicines.

Sanofi and Astra have selected the compounds to exchange based on differences from those previously existing in their own libraries.

They said chemical structures and synthetic procedures will be shared to facilitate the use of these compounds, and the compounds will be exchanged in sufficient quantity to enable the receiving company to carry out high throughput screening for several years to determine whether they are active against specific biological targets.

If a compound matches a target, it may go through several modifications to optimise its structure before being classified as a "lead compound" and potentially taken forward through development.

Sanofi’s president of global Research & Development, Elias Zerhouni, said: “Sanofi is committed to open innovation in our R&D platforms because we recognise that collaboration is the foundation of every medical breakthrough.

"We are happy to work with other companies if it will speed the discovery of new life-saving or life-enhancing therapies for patients. We believe that this collaboration will increase our capacity to deliver innovative solutions that have the potential to add significant medical value and transform lives."

At 0937 GMT, Sanofi shares were up 0.1% at €82.52 while AZN shares were 0.3% higher at 4,443p.