AZ, Roche to ‘bottle medchem’ for pharmasphere
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Three hundred and fifty-thousand rules is a lot of rules, even for a large pharmaceutical company. But two of the biggest firms – AstraZeneca and Hoffmann-La Roche - have just signed a collaboration that promises to generate many times more than that. The rules are part of an evolving engine that might tame the frustratingly empirical art of medicinal chemistry, and allow ‘bottled’ medchem wisdom to be shared across the pharma and biotech sectors. Perhaps surprisingly, Pascal Soriot, the obvious human link between the two companies had nothing to do with pulling the deal together.