MedImmune and NIST partner on biological therapies

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) US biologics R&D arm MedImmune has signed a five-year agreement with the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to jointly support research that will help advance drug discovery and manufacturing.

The effort will focus on tools and measurements that will be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, which are drugs and treatments derived from biological, rather than chemical, sources.

Under the new deal, MedImmune is providing first-year funding for seven NIST postdoctoral scientists, each working on a joint MedImmune/NIST research project. Further financial terms were not disclosed. These projects will seek to better understand mechanisms of action, structures and other biological and chemical principles useful in drug development, engineering and formulation, and help create measurement tools to facilitate that knowledge.