Glaxo Wellcome Signs Cancer Deal With ICR

Glaxo Wellcome has signed an agreement with Cancer Research Campaign Technology of the UK and the Institute of Cancer Research for a collaboration on research into the ras-map kinase cascade, a signal transduction pathway which may be associated with a number of disease states. The pathway has been implicated in disorders characterized by abnormal cell differentiation and proliferation, including cancer, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, GW will make annual payments to support the research at the ICR, in return for an exclusive development and marketing license for compounds arising from the work. CRCT, the wholly-owned technology transfer subsidiary of the CRC, would receive royalties on sales of products. The initial focus of the project will be the development of a high-throughput screen for drug discovery and cloning of genes involved in the pathway.