GSK enters B-RAF accord with UK research groups

The London, UK-based science research centers the Wellcome Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research have formed a new alliance with UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline to discover, develop and commercialize novel small-molecule inhibitors of B-RAF, a key signal transduction enzyme, for use as anti-cancer agents.

The new alliance builds on the partnership between the funding groups and Cancer Research Technology and fellow UK-based Astex Therapeutics entered in February 2004. The new R&D and Collaboration Agreement grants the Wellcome Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research a licence to three of GSK's lead series of relevant compounds. The groups will be responsible for providing the firm with drug candidates from these lead series or from leads generated during the new collaboration, which meet predefined criteria. GSK, in turn, will have the option of progressing these candidates through development and into the market.

Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: "this alliance represents an alternative model to drug discovery R&D, where the transition from biology into compound optimization is being led by the non-industry partners but with access to B-RAF compounds and the vast experience of GSK."