It's another indication of the emerging role CROs are playing in contributing to pharma and the drug pipeline. Indeed, figures from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (TCSDD) revealed that total global spending on contract clinical services jumped from $3.7bn (€2.9bn) in 2001 to $5.6bn in 2004.
The multi-year collaboration will see scientists from ChemBridge Corporation and ChemBridge Research Laboratories, (CRL) at its Moscow and San Diego research sites working with AstraZeneca scientists to develop small molecule libraries for the drug company. Further details and financial terms were not disclosed.
"AstraZeneca has selected ChemBridge and CRL as one of their chemistry partners," said Eugene Vaisberg, chairman and CEO of ChemBridge Corporation and CRL.
"This new agreement serves as yet another confirmation of the capabilities of CRL and ChemBridge in the area of small molecule research," he added.
AstraZeneca are in the midst of hiring outsourcing companies having also awarded a contract to drug delivery device service provider Bang & Olufsen Medicom to develop a new electronic monitor that can tell whether patients are correctly taking their medication or not.
The firm were not afraid to pull the plug on contracts that were not working, as PDI found out to their cost in March this year.
AstraZeneca pulled the plug on a long-running service contract with the CRO. At the time AstraZeneca was PDI's biggest client, and along with GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis, accounted for 50-60 per cent of the company's revenue.
According to a report by Kalorama Information, publishing division of MarketResearch.com, global drug development spending will top $105bn by 2010 with 40 per cent of this business is expected to be dished out in outsourcing contracts - with contract research organisations (CROs) emerging triumphant.
Contract drug development spending reached $19bn in 2005 and will increase at an annual rate of 17 per cent to exceed $42bn by 2010.