AstraZeneca to collaborate with Columbia University

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and Columbia University Medical Center in New York, USA, have entered into a multi-year strategic research collaboration in metabolic related diseases.

The partnership will work to develop novel therapeutics primarily for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity, with a secondary focus on atherosclerosis and dyslipidemia. The preclinical and clinical research will search for mechanisms and new biological targets for interventions that have the potential of being starting points for successful and commercially-viable treatments to tackle these diseases that are major risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Rudolph Leibel of the Medical Center said: "our scientists are delighted to collaborate with AstraZeneca. Our mutual focus on novel and translational science is an excellent fit between the two organizations, and active, ongoing scientific exchange will be the basis for this collaboration. We are in the process of establishing the joint project teams that will work to translate biological concepts developed in experimental models to patients, as well as to establish clinical methodologies designed to test novel therapeutic concepts in a timely way in humans."