AstraZeneca to coordinate, but not integrate MedImmune

NEW YORK AstraZeneca plans on running its new $15.6 billion biotech company MedImmune separately, but will coordinate its research to make sure the two companies are not duplicating efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported.

AstraZeneca officials said that they set up an executive R&D committee that will coordinate work between the two companies, which will set up research groups, and encourage rank and file scientists on both sides to swap information regularly.

A six-person R&D committee run by John Patterson, executive director of drug development at AstraZeneca, will meet regularly to set strategy for research, AstraZeneca officials said. The committee will help decide which disease targets both research groups will focus on, taking into account whether the disease would be better attacked with a small-molecule or large-molecule drug. A few AstraZeneca marketing officials will also sit on that board to help set marketing strategy for potential drugs at an early stage.