LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - A group of seven leadingdrugmakers has agreed to share an array of neglectedexperimental medicines with British academic researchers in thelatest example of the deepening ties between industry andexternal scientists.
British business minister Vince Cable announced the newpartnership on Tuesday between the Medical Research Council(MRC) and the companies, under which the researchers will gainaccess to "deprioritised" pharmaceutical compounds.
Often these compounds have been dropped from developmentbecause they are not sufficiently effective against a particularcondition, but they may still be useful against other diseaseswith shared biological pathways.
AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson &Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda and UCB have all signed up to the scheme,which builds on the success of an earlier two-way programmebetween AstraZeneca and the MRC.
One project under that original 2011 programme involves adrug designed originally to treat acid reflux disease that hasnow been utilised as a treatment for chronic cough and is beingtested in clinical trials.
While drugmakers have traditionally been reluctant to sharetheir compounds, there is a growing recognition that outsideexperts may be able to unlock value by taking a differentapproach, resulting in shared profits between companies andacademic institutions. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Goodman)