Collaboration with the University of Milano Bicocca

At the beginning of 2008, R|M signed an agreement of partnership in the field of pre-clinical pharmacology and neurotoxicity of drugs with the Department of Neurosciences and Biomedical Technologies of the University of Milano-Bicocca. This collaboration, which is developed through activities of common research, commits to the activities and availability to host young researchers at the R|M laboratories of Monza, reaffirms once more the commitment and the investments of this pharmaceutical group to support scientific research.

According to this agreement, Rottapharm will share the new laboratory of applied Molecular Biology located at its headquarters of Monza with the University of Milano-Bicocca. The laboratory, an unofficial branch of the Department of Neurosciences and Biomedical Technologies of the University of Milano-Bicocca, will host students in the process of defining and formulating their graduation theses in Medical Biotechnologies– with the possibility of subsequent stage post graduation – in the fields of Pharmacology and Molecular Biology and in the fields of applied base research. The agreement also contemplates scholarships for three-year doctorates in research and research assignment.

Initially, the collaboration will mostly be focused in the bigger R|M project on arthrosis – an area in which the company has been actively committed for several years – with the opportunity for the students to network with researchers involved in this field and to familiarize themselves with some basic techniques, as well as for graduate students to concretely participate in the development of new therapeutic goals and new drugs.

Additionally, the graduate students will work together with R|M researchers on the mechanisms of transmission and elaboration of pain stimulus. The aim is to create a strong synergy between R|M’s experience in the development of new analgesics and the know-how of the University Milano-Bicocca on the basic models of pain transmission, on a path that joins fundamental research with concrete immediate applicability. In perspective terms, this agreement could lead to collaborations on research themes from the scientists of the university and, in the long term, the possible creation of new, shared structures and laboratories between the two entities. R|M also endeavors to collaborate with other University departments.

As a matter of fact, the company has recently offered to act as an intermediary between the Department of Pharmacology of the Faculty of Medicine and Society of Applied Pharmacological Sciences (SSFA) for a possible creation of a Master’s degree on the development of drugs, which will allow for the attainment of the European certification in Pharmaceutical Medicine and for which R|M will make its own structures of clinical research available to accommodate some of the necessary stages for the achievement of this diploma.