Aurigene inks drug discovery, development pact with US-based EQRx

New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) Aurigene Discovery Technologies, a unit of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, on Monday said it has inked a drug discovery, development and commercialisation partnership with US-based EQRx.

The collaboration combines Aurigene's small molecule drug discovery platform and EQRx's business model to accelerate the development of drug candidates in the areas of oncology and immune-inflammatory diseases and improve global access to innovative medicines.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Aurigene and EQRx will collaborate on drug discovery, pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation, Aurigene Discovery Technologies said in a statement.

Aurigene will lead drug discovery and pre-clinical development efforts, and EQRx will assume responsibility for clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory and commercialisation efforts, it added.

The parties would share both funding for the discovery and development of the programmes and financials resulting from the commercialisation of any eventual drug candidates, the company stated.

"This agreement with EQRx further validates Aurigene's proven expertise in discovery and preclinical development of novel therapeutics and moves Aurigene forward into building a global oncology franchise participating in the end-to-end value chain," Aurigene CEO Murali Ramachandra said.

EQRx's Carlos Garcia noted that combined efforts will be made towards some of the most high-impact therapeutic targets across oncology and immune- inflammatory diseases.

"Given our mission, we believe these future programmes hold the potential to create important treatments for patients and drive meaningful savings for healthcare systems around the world," he added.