Alcon enters 5-year pact with AstraZeneca for eye drug development

Alcon has entered into a five-year collaborative research agreement with AstraZeneca for the exclusive ophthalmic discovery and potential development rights to AstraZeneca's compound library. The agreement matches Alcon's specific ophthalmic research capability with AstraZeneca's rich drug libraries and covers multiple classes of small molecules with lead compounds that already have been identified to have a strong scientific rationale for utility in ophthalmic disease. The two companies are targeting development of drugs to treat sight-threatening conditions such as glaucoma, wet and dry age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases, as well as ocular allergy, dry eye and other inflammatory eye conditions.