Agreements

* On June 25, 2013, AstraZeneca has announced the finalisation of a definitive agreement with Karolinska Institutet, regarding the establishment of a unique joint centre for research on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The new centre will be named ”Karolinska Institutet/AstraZeneca Integrated Cardio Metabolic Centre” (KI/AZ ICMC) and will be located on the KI Campus. The agreement is AstraZeneca’s largest ever with a Swedish academic institution. During the five-year initial contract period, AstraZeneca will contribute up to $ 20 million  annually, in total up to $ 100 million. It is also the first time that scientists from Karolinska Institutet will work side by side with scientists from a pharmaceutical company under the leadership of one director.

The centre’s aim is to identify and validate novel targets within cardio-metabolic diseases and will focus mainly on three strategic research themes: Cardiac Regeneration, Islet Health (Diabetes) and Diabetic Nephropathy across modalities like small molecules and biologics. A recruitment process for the director of the centre has been initiated and up to six Research Groups will be established at KI/AZ ICMC. In total 20-30 scientists from AstraZeneca and Karolinska Institute will be full time employees at the center.

* On March 21, 2013, AstraZeneca and the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have announced their intention to create an Integrated Translational Research Centre for cardiovascular and metabolic disease and regenerative medicine located at Karolinska Institutet’s site in Stockholm, Sweden. The Centre will be set up to conduct preclinical and clinical studies aimed at advancing the understanding of cardiovascular and metabolic disease pathophysiology and assessing new drug targets for AstraZeneca’s two biotech units, AstraZeneca Innovative Medicines and Early Development (iMed) and MedImmune.

Building on the organisations’ longstanding collaboration, the Centre will initially run for a period of five years and will be made up of between 20 and 30 scientists, including a number of AstraZeneca scientists. In addition, AstraZeneca will contribute up to $ 20 million  per annum, and Karolinska Institutet will contribute expertise and facilities. The Centre is expected to be operational by mid-2013.

Karolinska Institutet has a long history of scientific collaboration with AstraZeneca. In the field of cardiovascular and metabolic disease a three-year research partnership has recently been established, focusing on advancements in cardiac regenerative therapy. This work and the new Integrated Translational Research Centre will also feed into a collaboration announced between AstraZeneca and Moderna Therapeutics, focused on the discovery and development of pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics.

Elsewhere, Karolinska Institutet and AstraZeneca are working together to identify novel radioligands and advance the field of Positron Emission Tomography (PET), a modern imaging technique that allows for non-invasive examination of the human brain. In 2012, AstraZeneca and Karolinska Institutet announced a three-year research agreement to deliver new imaging tools that can help transition molecules through AstraZeneca’s early research and development pipeline. The same year the parties created a Translational Sciences Centre to discover and deliver biomarkers for clinical use across AstraZeneca’s portfolio. Additionally in 2012, AstraZeneca committed to investing in joint research projects within the Science for Life Laboratories (SciLifeLab), a joint venture between four Swedish universities, including Karolinska Institutet. Supported by the Swedish government, SciLifeLab provides a national platform in Sweden for genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioimaging.