GSK and AstraZeneca have announced that the two companies, along with the University of Manchester, are working together to create the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) to facilitate translational research in inflammatory diseases, including COPD and asthma. The center will recruit scientists in time to open the new facility at the University of Manchester by the end of 2011.
Each partner is contributing £5M over three years to establish the center. and the partners will set priorities jointly. The “ultimate goal” they say, is “translating findings into new and improved treatments” that “could potentially benefit the millions of people worldwide affected by diseases associated with chronic inflammation, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.”
Professor Ian Jacobs, Vice President of The University of Manchester and Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, commented: “The University of Manchester welcomes greatly this opportunity to ensure that some of its fundamental biomedical research will become more closely aligned with the need to develop new therapies for inflammatory diseases. This collaboration builds on the mutual understanding developed between the University and both GSK and AstraZeneca over recent years, and will bring together expertise in biomedical research from the University with the resources and drug discovery expertise from GSK and AstraZeneca to create true partnership and synergy. It firmly establishes the UK and The University of Manchester at the forefront of innovative and enterprising research into inflammatory disease.”
Read the press release.
