Cancer Research UK invests 10 million pounds in drug discovery

Cancer Research UK is investing £10m in drug discovery projects at four universities across the UK.

Project leaders at Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Strathclyde and The School of Pharmacy in London will each receive £500k per year for five years to develop anti-cancer drugs.

The grants aim to encourage research into using small molecules to create new and targeted drugs to treat cancer. The projects will range from developing therapies for leukaemia to discovering new drugs to beat drug resistance in breast and prostate cancer treatments.

Professor Herbie Newell, Cancer Research UK's executive director of clinical and translational research, said: "We are in the process of significantly expanding our drug discovery programmes. We will be investing more in developing new approaches to treatments and getting the most promising drugs into first clinical trials in man faster.

"Recent advances in our understanding of the biology of cancer have revolutionised the way we discover drugs, using specific targets as starting points. The four projects will embrace this method of drug discovery. We hope the discoveries will complement our existing drug development programmes and other aspects of the charity's work, including trials geared towards improving existing treatments for cancer patients."