Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said it will spend about $20 million to conduct trials in the U.K., plus an additional $1 million on basic research into dementia, through a collaboration with the U.K.'s new clinical drug development effort.

Teva will team up with the U.K.’s new National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI), a new entity designed to create a single point of entry for drug developers into the complex U.K. healthcare system.

NOCRI, unveiled yesterday by the National Health Service, is designed to save drug developers time otherwise spent dealing separately with medical and academic institutions involved in clinical development. By joining with NOCRI, Teva hopes to benefit from the NIHR's new translational research infrastructure and its ability to set-up and deliver studies, as well as from NHS’s access to cohorts of patients.

Teva also said it will spend up to $1 million in a three-year dementia research program designed to fund early stage work in U.K. academic and medical centers. Research will be focused on understanding targets, mechanisms and new approaches to treatment of different causes and types of dementia.

NOCRI will facilitate Teva’s access to the NIHR’s Biomedical Research Centres and Units in Dementia, and the institute’s Translational Research Partnership in Dementia. Under the collaboration, Teva maintains the right to negotiate licenses to the targets.

Michael Hayden, M.D., Ph.D., Teva’s president of global R&D and CSO, announced the clinical initiative at a special UK-Israel Tech Hub at the British Embassy Israel event, held at Teva’s Jerusalem site. The event was attended by Erez Vigodman, Teva’s president and CEO; as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron.

“The meaning of Teva is nature, and it is in the nature of Israelis and Brits to be entrepreneurial,” Cameron said in a statement. “Success in technology, innovation, and the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are a must if Israel and Britain are to compete in the global race.”

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