Sanofi and AstraZeneca Exchange More Than 200,000 Compounds

Sanofi and AstraZeneca have announced an exchange of 210,000 compounds from their respective proprietary compound libraries in an "open innovation" collaboration model.    According to a Sanofi press release, the companies have selected the compounds based on differences from those previously existing in their own libraries. Chemical structures and synthetic procedures will be shared to facilitate the use of the compounds. They will be exchanged in sufficient quantity to enable the receiving company to carry out high throughput screening (HTS) 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 optimize its structure before being classified as a "lead compound" and potentially taken forward through development.   There are no payments associated with the exchanged compounds either upfront or in terms of downstream payments in the event that they form the basis of a successful clinical candidate. Each company can investigate the compounds it receives without restrictions on targeted disease areas.