Date: 2013-12-23
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: AZD2098
Company: AstraZeneca (UK) Cancer Research (UK) Cancer Research Technology (UK)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism: AZD2098 targets a molecule found on immune cells called CCR4, which is important for directing these cells to where they need to go. It is thought that in kidney cancer, immune cells move to the tumour because of this molecule. Once the immune cells arrive, the tumour often forces them to become inactive, or worse, help the cancer develop. By blocking this function, AZD2098 may change the immune cell environment around the cancer, encouraging those cells to attack the tumour. CCR4 has also been found to be expressed on the surface of cancer cells, which may provide an additional way for this blocker to impair tumour growth. The work establishing the potential anti-tumour effect of AZD2098 was carried out by Professor Frances Balkwill at Queen Mary University of London’s Barts Cancer Institute and was supported by Cancer Research UK.
Disease: kidney cancer
Details: * On December 23, 2013, Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Technology – the charity’s development and commercialisation arm – have reached an agreement with AstraZeneca to take AZD2098, an experimental drug originally designed for asthma, into a clinical trial to treat kidney cancer.
This is the third agreement the parties have made under the Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) scheme. CDP is a joint initiative between Cancer Research UK’s Drug Development Office (DDO) and Cancer Research Technology (CRT), to develop promising anti-cancer agents which pharmaceutical companies have not selected for further development and CRT is better placed to progress through early phase clinical trials. It is the ninth* treatment to enter Cancer Research UK\'s CDP scheme, with 6 having progressed into the clinic.
This deal with AstraZeneca will enable the charity’s Drug Development Office to complete preclinical development and carry out early clinical trials of the compound to see if it can benefit kidney cancer patients. Cancer Research UK’s DDO is also funding the early phase trial of AZD2098 in which up to 40 patients will take part commencing in 2015.
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