Abbott Laboratories, a global healthcare company, and ChemDiv Research Institute (CDRI), the research entity of ChemRar Hi-Tech Centre, have signed an agreement to launch several R&D projects in Russia.

The initiative is aimed to broaden therapeutic opportunities for the patients in Russia and to contribute to building an innovative pharmaceutical industry in Russia. The first collaboration between CDRI and Abbott will focus on creating advanced new forms of existing Abbott pharmaceutical products to increase patient's compliance and decrease medicine intake. These goals will be accomplished by developing new technologies and by introducing new medicine formulations.

In addition, ChemRar's R&D company, Intellectual Dialog, just launched a research project with Abbott aimed at prevention and treatment of selected viral diseases impacting children and the elderly. Intellectual Dialog will conduct discovery research in collaboration with Abbott.

CDRI and Abbott are also in discussions regarding several other joint programs for small molecule medicine's development and enhancement.

"CDRI is actively involved in both developing new molecules and improving existing drugs, covering the full cycle from pre-clinical development through manufacturing. Our collaboration with global healthcare leader Abbott will draw on the company's expertise and technologies and Russia's significant scientific potential to effectively develop new products of the highest quality based on existing drugs," said Nikolay Savchuk, chairman at CDRI.

The collaboration is aligned with the Russian government initiative to modernize the Russian pharmaceutical industry as envisioned in the development strategy for the pharmaceutical industry through 2020.