Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Technology (CRT) today announced they will begin a phase I clinical trial of an anti-cancer drug from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
GSK's 1070916A, an aurora kinase inhibitor, is the third drug to enter Cancer Research UK's Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) programme, but the first that is ready to be used in patients.
Cancer Research UK will sponsor the phase I trial, at the Institute of Oncology at St James's University Hospital in Leeds and Barts and The London's Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre in London. The trial will be managed by the charity's highly experienced drug development office and will start within the next year.
The phase I trial will be carried out on around 30 to 40 patients with advanced solid tumours who have had all the treatments currently available. Cancer Research UK will have the opportunity to carry out a further phase II trial if the trial is successful.
Dr Victoria John, head of clinical partnerships at Cancer Research UK, said: "We're delighted to be working with GSK on this promising new molecule under our CDP initiative."
"This deal brings our CDP portfolio to three and the total number of new drugs in our early preclinical and clinical pipeline to over 40, something we believe is testament to the specialist skills and capability of our drug development team."
CDP offers companies an alternative model to traditional out licensing, which enables them to retain rights to the compound throughout the development programme. The programme launched in 2006 to increase the number of new treatments for cancer patients by taking deprioritised anti-cancer agents from industry and putting them into clinical trials.