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News Analysis

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 7, 631–632 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/nrd2648

Pharma pursues novel models for academic collaboration

Bethan Hughes

Since early June this year, there has been a flurry of announcements from pharmaceutical companies embarking on collaborations with academic institutions. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), for example, has teamed up with the Immune Disease Institute, Boston, USA, aiming to become a world leader in immuno–inflammatory drug discovery; AstraZeneca will work with Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA, to develop novel therapeutics for diabetes and obesity; and Pfizer aims to advance drug discovery across many therapeutic areas with the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), USA.