AstraZeneca Partners with MD Anderson on Cancer Therapy Development

On Jan. 29, 2015 the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced a multi-year research collaboration with AstraZeneca to conduct multiple, parallel clinical and clinically-related studies in ovarian and gynecologic cancers to improve patient outcomes. As part of the agreement, investigational therapies will be used in clinical trials and epidemiological and outcome studies will be conducted.

Data collected from the studies will be used to develop existing and future therapies. In an effort to accelerate treatments for these types of cancer, MD Anderson will have access to therapeutic agents in AstraZeneca’s pipeline.

“Collaborations that examine new agents and explore disease epidemiology and outcomes have the potential to inform the development of novel and combination treatments, and MD Anderson has the ability and expertise required to provide data-rich, rapid trials to inform this combination strategy,” said Gordon Mills, MD, PhD, chair of Systems Biology, Division of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson, in a press release.

The Moon Shots Program was launched by MD Anderson to reduce the mortality rate and suffering that patients experience in various types of cancer. The program includes branches investigating triple-negative breast, high-grade serious ovarian, myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, lung, melanoma, and prostate cancers. The partnership will pair novel agents from AstraZeneca with the expertise of the physicians at MD Anderson’s Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy..

According to a press release, AstraZeneca aims to introduce six new cancer medicines for patients by the year 2020.

Source: MD Anderson