ONK and Anthony Nolan combine forces to work on blood cancer therapies
pharmafile | February 22, 2021 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Anthony Nolan, Cancer, ONK, blood cancer, cancer treatment
ONK Therapeutics and blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan will work together on therapies for patients with haematological malignancies (blood cancers) and solid tumours.
The two companies are collaborating to enable the development of next-generation natural killer (NK) cell therapies, which would improve the lives of patients with the conditions.
NK cells are a type of white blood cell that have a major influence in the rejection of virally infected cells and tumours.
As part of the agreement, Anthony Nolan will provide a consistent supply of umbilical cord blood and cord-derived NK cells as starting materials for both ONK Therapeutics’ research activities and continued process development work.
Anthony Nolan, which specialises in donating cells in order to save the lives of people with blood cancer and blood disorders, has more than 850,000 donors on record.
The ultimate aim of the collaboration is to develop new lifesaving cell therapies for patients with a broad range of cancers.
Chris Nowers, CEO of ONK Therapeutics says: “Anthony Nolan has a rich heritage in stem cell therapy research, including an enviable understanding of the biology of NK Cells and their processing.
“We look forward to continuing to partner with their team and to benefiting from their extensive know-how as we drive our programs towards clinical trials and beyond.”
Diana Hernandez, Head of Immunotherapy at the Anthony Nolan Research Institute says: “Our innovative partnership with ONK Therapeutics will serve to accelerate vital research and development into hematological and solid cancer treatments.
“We see this as an exciting opportunity which will ultimately lead to better treatments, improving the lives of many more cancer patients.”
Over 900,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with some form of blood cancer each year. About 7% of all cancers are a blood cancer.
Jack Goddard
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