Scale up public drug development that takes academic assets to phase 1
The US government already runs a small programme that turns academic cancer discoveries into drugs ready for human trials. Scale it up tenfold and copy it in other countries.
NCI's Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) programme and the Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development show that public bodies can run medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and IND-enabling work on academic targets and then license candidates to companies. Both are small relative to the pipeline of stranded academic discoveries. The proposal is to expand these to tens of concurrent programmes each, prioritising undruggable and neglected targets, with explicit licensing-out at phase 1 or 2 and revenue returning to the programme. Public development is also the natural home for assets with no commercial sponsor (rare cancers, generics, combinations of competitors' drugs).
- The valley of death between lab and product · Most academic discoveries die before anyone tests them in people because nobody funds the middle step.
- The undruggable drivers · The proteins that drive most cancers, such as MYC, mutant p53 and most RAS variants, still have no good drug.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaA precompetitive consortium for the twenty hardest cancer targets
Shares The Institute of Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK, The undruggable drivers.
- IdeaA non-profit phase 1b combination unit that any drug owner can use
Shares The Institute of Cancer Research, The valley of death between lab and product, Cancer Research UK.
- IdeaMulti-centre randomised animal trials before committing to a human trial
Shares The valley of death between lab and product, Cancer Research UK, National Cancer Institute (NIH).
- IdeaA national non-profit contract research organisation for academic oncology trials
Shares Regional translational institutes with academic GMP suites and IND teams, The valley of death between lab and product, National Cancer Institute (NIH).
- InstitutionWorldwide Cancer Research
Shares The valley of death between lab and product, Cancer Research UK.
- IdeaA public registry of stalled academic assets and shelved company compounds
Shares A non-profit pharmaceutical company for the cancers markets ignore, The valley of death between lab and product.
- IdeaTwo-year translational fellowships that pay scientists to develop their own discovery
Shares Regional translational institutes with academic GMP suites and IND teams, The valley of death between lab and product.
- IdeaA public-benefit phase 1 factory that takes academic discoveries into first-in-human trials
Shares The valley of death between lab and product, National Cancer Institute (NIH).