Discovery & development
We follow the science where we can make the greatest difference, now and in the future.
We aspire to be the premier, research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. We bring creative minds together to transform world-class science into life-changing medicines and vaccines.
Boston, MA
Out Boston Discovery Hub is located at the center of this vibrant life sciences community. Here, our team focuses on discovery research in immunology, oncology, diabetes and neuroscience.
Cambridge, MA
Our Exploratory Science Center in Cambridge focuses on the earliest stages of discovery research – exploring the most promising areas of emerging science and technology.
Kenilworth, NJ
Our Kenilworth site is our world headquarters and a main biologics research and development hub. Our work here spans the discovery continuum, including preclinical development, with world class capabilities in biologics and synthetic chemistry.
London, UK
Our UK Discovery teams are based in state-of-the-art research laboratories at the heart of London’s vibrant and world-leading life sciences community. Working side-by-side and collaboratively with academic institutions, our scientists are focusing on the most challenging diseases facing aging populations.
Rahway, NJ
For more than a century, the Rahway campus has been home to many medical breakthroughs. This is a research-focused campus that includes core chemistry and preclinical development capabilities. Rahway has been recognized by the American Chemical Society as a National Historic Chemical Landmark.
Upper Gwynedd, PA
The Upper Gwynedd site is headquarters for our U.S. Human Health Division and home to many of our research colleagues in clinical development and regulatory affairs. As part of our sustainable goals at research and manufacturing sites, we have a broad range of solar panels at this site that provide enough power to reduce the site’s energy
Our research & development process
Candidate discovery
Our journey to discovering new medicines and vaccines starts by understanding the inner workings of a disease
We follow cutting-edge science to analyze diseases from every angle possible to accelerate the pace of drug discovery – from its underlying genetics, to the structure of individual proteins and the way hundreds of molecules interact with each other. Our scientists are using automation, miniaturization and information technologies as well as new tools – such as our cryo-electron microscope – to help us assess targets at a faster pace and design new medicines. In oncology, we are also evaluating tumor genetics and genomics to identify new targets.
Preclinical development
Before breakthroughs, there is science. We ensure only the most promising innovations with the greatest potential advance for future testing
Across the biopharmaceutical industry, it takes many scientists many years to design, make and test thousands of new molecules in order to find the one or two that may be tested in clinical trials. Each discovery is refined, optimized and carefully scrutinized before it can be tested in humans. Our scientists are using preclinical data to conduct translational research to identify biomarkers that can be used in the clinic to provide surrogate measures of efficacy for our investigational candidates.
Clinical development
Our success is due in large part to the challenging scientific questions we set out to answer with our trials and collaborations
Our researchers work internally – as well as with the medical community – to generate evidence to determine whether a medicine has potential to benefit patients. Once our investigational therapies are in clinical trials, our scientists implement machine learning technologies using artificial intelligence to analyze big data from the trials to help us understand the fundamentals of human biology and how that relates to disease modification.
Real-world data
Our Center for Observational and Real-World Evidence (CORE) is dedicated to the science of understanding how our medicines contribute and function in the real world
We believe that real-world evidence, or data acquired in everyday clinical practice, is an important complement to our rigorous clinical trial program. It allows us to take insights from real-world clinical practice back to our research labs to better understand our existing medicines and inform the discovery and development of future therapies.
