J&J, Vanderbilt team up on schizophrenia drugs- WSJ

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Vanderbilt University will team up with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) to develop new drugs to treat schizophrenia, according to a media report.

The Tennessee university will receive about $10 million from J&J over the next three years, plus as much as $100 million in additional payments if it meets certain research milestones, the Wall Street Journal said.

The deal is scheduled to be announced Friday, the paper said.

Researchers unconnected with the project told the paper that the Vanderbilt-J&J partnership appears to be more extensive than historical university-industry collaborations.

Under the agreement, Vanderbilt's researchers won't just identify promising molecules, but will develop drugs to the stage where they are ready for human testing, working, for example, to make a prospective medicine less toxic, according to the paper.

Johnson & Johnson and Vanderbilt University could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters. (Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Kim Coghill)