AZN AstraZeneca PLC

By Dieter Holger

AstraZeneca PLC and GlaxoSmithKline PLC have teamed up with the University of Cambridge to combat shortages of Covid-19 tests, the companies said Tuesday.

The British drug companies said they would set up a laboratory at the university to develop "alternative chemical reagents for test kits in order to help overcome current supply shortages."

"While diagnostic testing is not part of either company's core business, we are moving as fast as we can to help where possible," the companies said.

In late March, GSK joined a coalition of drugmakers who agreed to share their "proprietary libraries of molecular compounds" for screening with the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, which was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Inc. and U.K.-based nonprofit Wellcome.

That effort could result in human or animal trials in as little as two months, the Gates Foundation said at the time.

Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com; @dieterholger

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 07, 2020 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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