A strategic alliance between Cancer Research UK, Newcastle University and Astex Pharmaceuticals for drug discovery has been extended for another three years.
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The alliance, which was formed five years ago, has comprised multiple projects spanning target validation and early stage medicinal chemistry, with projects progressing towards the more advanced stages of preclinical development.
“We’re delighted to extend this major collaboration which accelerates the development of Cancer Research UK’s world class work into new treatments for patients,” said Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation. “Promising new compounds resulting from this partnership are now progressing towards the next stage of development. Multi-project alliances like this are powerful engines for innovation and drug discovery and this announcement underlines Cancer Research UK’s exceptional track record of bringing these together successfully.”
“The innovative academic-industry collaborative model pioneered with Astex has been a genuine success and we are thrilled to be able to continue working in partnership on our drug discovery research,” added Steve Wedge, professor of Stratified Cancer Medicine Discovery at Newcastle University. “The alliance benefits significantly from complementary expertise and provides a route to progress promising novel therapies towards clinical use.”
“The extension of our agreement with Newcastle and Cancer Research UK underlines the success of our existing alliance and the importance we place on collaboration with world leading academic research groups to strengthen our efforts to discover new treatments for patients,” explained Dr Harren Jhoti, president and chief executive officer of Astex. “We look forward to continuing our important work and to continued success in bringing new compounds into development.”
Under the terms of the agreement, researchers at the Cancer Research UK Drug Discovery Programme at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research (NICR), Newcastle University, will work towards the identification and development of new cancer drugs and associated biomarkers. Astex pharmaceuticals will retain the right to an exclusive worldwide licence for the most promising projects and Cancer Research UK and Newcastle University will be eligible to receive milestone and royalty payments in the instances of successful commercialisation of compounds.
Furthermore, this new agreement includes provisions for a further extension at the end of the three-years.