Sanofi-Aventis signs personalized medicine deal with Scripps; foray into generics sector assessed

In another link with academia, French drug major Sanofi-Aventis has entered into a strategic alliance with Scripps Genomic Medicine, a division of the USA-based Scripps Health, to advance R&D initiatives in the field of individualized medicine. Earlier this year, the company set up a collaboration with the USA's Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Biomedical Innovation (The Pharma Letter May 27).

"Our alliance with Sanofi-Aventis exemplifies the ideal collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and non-profit research community," said Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health. "The partnership aims to foster an environment of open scientific exchange in genomic medicine that we hope will translate to new discoveries to benefit patients while establishing a collaborative approach to drug development."

Under the terms of the collaboration, financial details of which are not disclosed, Sanofi-Aventis Recherche & Developpement, a subsidiary of the French group, will fund up to three Discovery Innovation Grants per year, which is intended to offer flexible financing for innovative research proposals from Scripps investigators. In turn, Sanofi-Aventis will be granted non-exclusive rights to any research tools developed through these grants, as well as preferred access to Scripps laboratory facilities for work conducted in support of sponsored research agreements and technologies or discoveries in the field of personalized medicine. Additionally, through ongoing scientific exchange and collaboration including an Annual Research Symposium jointly organized by the drugmaker and Scripps, Sanofi-Aventis will have access to Scripps research programs that can contribute to the company's priority areas.