Continuing its virtual CNS R&D strategy, AstraZeneca has formed a research partnership with Vanderbilt University to identify drug candidates for the treatment of psychosis and other neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with major brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. As part of the agreement, AstraZeneca has licensed compounds developed by the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (VCNDD) that act on the M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor via positive allosteric modulation. VCNDD has previously formed collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb in Parkinson’s disease and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutica in schizophrenia.