Oncology

Oncology has long been a major focus of our in-house research, with targets that are particularly amenable to the research techniques we have developed. We currently have a number of programmes in both the research and development phases:

Our Hsp90 programme began in 2001, working from 2002-2004 with the Sutton-based ICR operation. This program was partnered with Novartis in 2004 and the lead molecule from this collaboration, AUY922, is now in phase II clinical trials. Learn more about AUY922 >

An attractive feature of Hsp90 inhibitors is that they act against cancer cells at many different levels.  We later worked on the similarly multi-faceted targets Hsp70 and Pin1 which provide excellent illustrations of how our fragment and structure-based drug design methods can be applied to challenging targets.

Cancer metabolism and synthetic lethality

We have pursued early stage research programmes against several protein kinases. Our Chk1 inhibitor, V158411, now Phase I ready, illustrates one of our target-selection philosophies: targeting cancer-specific synthetic lethality relationships. Additional early stage programmes against novel kinase targets conforming to this paradigm are underway. Learn more about V158411 >

Another strand of our in-house research is to discover novel anti-cancer therapies targeting the unique metabolism of cancer cells.

We currently have later stage research programs in oncology partnered with Servier.

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