Bird & Bird and Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) have won lead roles acting on a major joint venture between AstraZeneca and Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), in a move that hands Bird & Bird its first major instruction for the FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant.

The agreement will see the two companies fund a minimum of 25 antibody development programmes with at least $175m (£93.5m) invested by the alliance partners.