CR UK to fund trials of shelved cancer drugs

Cancer Research UK has announced the launch of its Clinical Development Partnerships program. The scheme, which is a joint initiative between the charity and its development and commercialization arm, Cancer Research Technology, is focused on identifying deprioritized anticancer agents from the developmental pipelines of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for further development.

CRUK said that it will consider a wide range of identified anticancer agents for development, including monoclonal antibodies, peptides and vaccines, but added that it would initially concentrate on those compounds which have shown efficacy and appropriate toxicology data at the preclinical assessment stage.

Under the terms of the prospective deals, CRUK will license and undertake the clinical development of selected anticancer drugs, primarily at the Phase I stage, rather than licensing the compounds directly. CRUK will fund the assessment and own all the resulting data, with the partner company being entitled to pay for access to this information while retaining the right to develop and commercialize the molecule. CRUK is also entitled to payments based on sales of any commercialized products that emerge.