Cancer Research invests
pharmafile | January 15, 2008 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
Cancer Research UK is investing ten million pounds in drug discovery projects at four UK universities.
Project leaders at Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Strathclyde and The School of Pharmacy in London will each receive £500,000 a year for five years from the charity to develop new drugs to fight cancer.
The grants will support research into new and targeted small molecule cancer treatments. The projects will range from developing therapies for leukaemia to discovering new drugs to overcome drug resistance in breast and prostate cancer treatments.
Professor Herbie Newell, Cancer Research UK's executive director of clinical and translational research, said: "We are in the process of significantly expanding our drug discovery programmes. We will be investing more in developing new approaches to treatments and getting the most promising drugs into first clinical trials in man faster.
"Recent advances in our understanding of the biology of cancer have revolutionised the way we discover drugs, using specific targets as starting points. The four projects will embrace this method of drug discovery. We hope the discoveries will complement our existing drug development programmes and other aspects of the charity's work, including trials geared towards improving existing treatments for cancer patients."
The new funds complement the work done by Cancer Research Technology (CRT), which is a specialist technology transfer and development company owned by Cancer Research UK. The company works with academia, the NHS and industry on a number of development projects.
So far, CRT's activities have resulted in three agents created by Cancer Research UK-funded scientists being developed and approved for the treatment of cancer. There are currently over 20 more novel treatments in development.
