/EINPresswire.com/ -- VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 19, 2016) - The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), Canada's national drug development and commercialization centre, today announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, to identify novel drug targets across a range of diseases where there is an unmet medical need in order to develop new or improved therapies for the benefit of patients. AstraZeneca will make available 250,000 compounds from its chemical compound library to CDRD to validate and develop promising new drug therapies.

"This agreement provides unique resources that will allow CDRD to provide validation and screening for novel drug targets unlike any other centre in Canada," said Gordon McCauley, CDRD's Interim President and CEO. "The partnership with AstraZeneca, our newest global industry partner, builds on the strength of hundreds of researchers, and applies business discipline and scientific rigour to select promising targets for development. This will give Canada an edge towards a prosperous knowledge-based economy which is critical to ensuring our nation's global competitiveness."

Dr. Garry Pairaudeau, Head of External Sciences at AstraZeneca said, "We are excited to be working with CDRD through the AstraZeneca Open Innovation program. Canada has excellent drug discovery capabilities and a vibrant biological research community. Our hope is that this collaboration will help us advance some truly innovative research across a number of therapeutic areas."

This private/public partnership will continue to support Canadian health research projects by advancing promising research from the university labs through independent testing and validation and towards clinical trials and commercialization. It further validates the CDRD model of providing specialized expertise and infrastructure to identify and advance promising discoveries generated by health-related research, and transform them into commercially viable investment opportunities for the private sector -- and ultimately into innovative new therapies for patients.

About The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD)
CDRD is Canada's national drug development and commercialization centre working in partnership with academia, industry, government and foundations. CDRD provides the specialized expertise and infrastructure to identify, validate and advance promising discoveries, and transform them into commercially viable investment opportunities for the private sector -- and ultimately into new therapies for patients. Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence Program has recognized CDRD as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). www.cdrd.ca

About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines, primarily for the treatment of diseases in three main therapy areas -- Respiratory and Autoimmunity, Cardiovascular and Metabolic disease, and Oncology. We are also active in inflammation, infection and neuroscience through collaborations. AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. AstraZeneca's Canadian headquarters are located in Mississauga, Ontario. For more information please visit: www.astrazeneca.com.

Contacts:
Julia White
Manager, Communications
jwhite@cdrd.ca
604.827.1226