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A project to develop anti-cancer drugs, which attack a weak aspect of a tumour while sparing normal tissue, is to be undertaken by a team of around 30 scientists.
The team will be based at CRT’s Discovery Laboratories in London and Cambridge, and AstraZeneca’s cancer research centre near Manchester.
The three-year project is aimed at finding an “Achilles heel” of a tumour by developing small molecules attempting to target changes to a cell’s metabolism so as to deprive cancer cells of nutrients. Cancer Research UK’s commercialisation and development arm, Cancer Research Technology (CRT) is working with biopharmaceutical business, AstraZeneca on the project.
The group of scientists are to work on a portfolio of projects which will be carefully selected by CRT from Cancer Research UK’s portfolio of biological research in the emerging field of cancer metabolism.
AstraZeneca will take the most promising projects forward into pre-clinical and clinical drug development – through an innovative model for sharing the risks and potential rewards in creating new anti-cancer treatments. CRT will receive milestone payments and royalties on the projects that AstraZeneca take into clinical development.
Copyright Press Association 2010
