Bristol-Myers Squibb and Syngene International, a CRO based in India, have announced a five-year extension of their drug discovery and development collaboration in India. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Since 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb has been working with Syngene and its corporate parent, Biocon, to develop integrated capabilities in medicinal and process chemistry, biology, biotechnology, biomarkers, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, analytical research and pharmaceutical development at the Biocon Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Center (BBRC) in Bangalore.

The U.S.-India collaboration has produced six drug candidates for further study and also helped Bristol-Myers Squibb reduce the time and costs associated with advancing new compounds to first-in-human studies. One drug candidate currently in clinical trials was discovered at BBRC and early nonclinical development work done at BBRC has enabled most of Bristol-Myers Squibb's small molecule assets to advance to later stages of development over the last five years.