Date: 2012-10-23
Type of information: Grant
Company: 4SC (Germany)
Investors:
Amount: € 600,000
Funding type: grant
Planned used: This grant will be used to support the development of new cancer drugs in the area of personalised medicine. As part of the Munich-based leading-edge biotech cluster programme m4, the grant will support a research collaboration between 4SC Discovery and the project group for Immune Pharmacology (Dr. Sebastian Kobold) in the department of Clinical Pharmacology headed by Professor Dr. Stefan Endres from the Medical Clinic of the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. The aim of this collaboration is to advance the preclinical development of so-called TLR7 and TLR8 agonists for use in cancer immunotherapy. The project is intended to promote the further development of substances which influence the immune system of cancer patients in such a way that the immune system recognises the cancer cells and destroys them. Given that the ability of the immune system to react to abnormal cells depends significantly on the immune status and immune competence of the patient, personalised medicine pursues a therapeutic approach which involves a simultaneous biomarker analysis of the particular patients. The collaboration will start in November 2012 and is scheduled to run for a period of two years.
Others: 4SC AG, a discovery and development company of targeted small molecule drugs for autoimmune diseases and cancer, has announced that its subsidiary 4SC Discovery GmbH, which specialises in the discovery and early-stage research of new compounds, is to receive a research grant of approximately € 600,000 for the development of new cancer drugs in the area of personalised medicine.
Besides epigenetics and cancer stem cells, 4SC Discovery GmbH has a strong research focus on cancer immunotherapy. The aim of cancer immunotherapy is to develop substances that can influence the immune system of cancer patients in such a way that the patient\'s immune system recognises and destroys the primary cancer cells and tumour metastases. Toll-like receptors represent a promising target class for cancer immunotherapy. They represent a kind of alarm system in the human body. The activation of this alarm system, for instance by 4SC\'s small molecule substances (TLR agonists), results in the stimulation of the immune system and a release of messenger and signaling molecules in the body, including interferons as well as other cytokines and chemokines. The TLR agonists project of 4SC is funded by the program \'m4 - Personalised Medicine and Targeted Therapies\' for which the Munich Biotech Cluster was awarded \'Leading-Edge cluster status\' by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) in 2010. For a 5 year period, the program is funded with € 40 million from the BMBF, which are complemented by € 40 million from the participating companies in more than 40 cooperative R&D projects from industry and scientific institutions. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology supports the cluster management agency BioM and particular components of the concept with an additional € 12 million.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
