The collaboration facilitates interactions between physicians and scientists in both organizations to combine resources and expertise in disease intervention while providing flexibility to work in a variety of ways and accelerate the development of new treatments. It is unusual in its focus on pre-clinical research and the transition to clinical trials and was the first of its kind for both institutions.
"For patients with cancer, delays are unacceptable. We look forward to continuing our relationship with AstraZeneca to make even more rapid progress in evaluating drugs that are likely to benefit our patients."
AstraZeneca and M. D. Anderson Renew Cancer Research Collaboration
Alliance extended for a further five years
M. D. Anderson News Release 10/29/08
Robert C. Bast, JR., M.D.AstraZeneca and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center today announced they have renewed their collaboration to integrate pre-clinical and clinical research with a view to speeding up access to new medicines of potential benefit to cancer patients.
Brent Vose, Vice President of AstraZeneca's Oncology Therapy Area said: "AstraZeneca is committed to the research and development of new, targeted anti-cancer therapies to improve the lives of cancer patients..."Our collaboration with M. D. Anderson has proven our ability to speed up the drug development process without compromising quality and we look forward to building on our joint efforts to date."
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The collaboration facilitates interactions between physicians and scientists in both organizations to combine resources and expertise in disease intervention while providing flexibility to work in a variety of ways and accelerate the development of new treatments. It is unusual in its focus on pre-clinical research and the transition to clinical trials and was the first of its kind for both institutions.
Brent Vose, Vice President of AstraZeneca's Oncology Therapy Area
Robert C. Bast Jr., M.D., Vice President for Translational Research at M. D. Anderson
Notes to Editors:
1 Examples include projects designed to discover novel cancer targets that synergize with drugs that modulate key cancer pathways, novel methods to evaluate and utilize circulating tumor cells in lung cancer, identification and validation of circulating biomarkers of drug action and positioning of drugs within different segments of lung cancer.
2 Phase I trial of AZD8330 commenced two days after receiving FDA approval.
Scott Merville, 713-792-0661, smerville [at] mdanderson [dot] org