Dive Brief:
- AstraZeneca (AZ) and Sanofi are undertaking a chemical compound exchange to expand their respective libraries. The swap involves 210,000 compounds from the companies’ respective compound libraries.
- In addition to exchanging the actual compounds, the two companies are also exchanging chemical structures and synthetic procedures. This will facilitate actual use of the compounds.
- This exchange is part of AZ's open innovation approach.
Dive Insight:
AZ and Sanofi are putting a new face on innovation with this compound exchange. It opens up innovation at the chemical level, while also broadening how its typically defined.
Through this exchange, each company deepens the chemical diversity of their respective portfolios, allowing them to screen from a broader pool of targets. The goal is to improve the hit-rate for the eventual development of new small-molecule medicines.