Tocris Bioscience Signs Exclusive Deal to Supply Anastrozole and Bicalutamide for Cancer Research

Tocris Bioscience (www.tocris.com) announced today the signing of an exclusive deal with AstraZeneca to supply anastrozole and bicalutamide to researchers working on the mechanisms underlying cancer development. For the first time, preclinical scientists will be able to buy fully licensed, non-formulated anastrozole and bicalutamide as off-the shelf products for use in biological research.

In recent years pharmaceutical companies have developed a number of small molecule drugs that are clinically effective against certain types of cancer. Aromatase inhibitors such as anastrozole, and androgen inhibitors such as bicalutamide, are at the forefront of this new generation of targeted anticancer agents.

Anastrozole and bicalutamide have been licensed to Tocris for use as preclinical research compounds only. Strict conditions have been imposed by AstraZeneca to ensure that they are not used in human studies.

Duncan Crawford, Tocris’ Chief Scientific Officer, said, “We know that there is a great deal of interest in anastrozole and bicalutamide from the global research community. By making the fully licensed products available through our catalogue, we hope to promote new and exciting research in the fundamental processes that drive cancer development. For Tocris these important new products perfectly compliment our comprehensive and expanding range of high purity compounds, which are in use worldwide to further biomedical research. We are delighted that our excellent relationship with AstraZeneca has allowed us to make these compounds available to scientists working on the fundamental mechanisms of cancer cell biology”

• Full product information on anastrozole can be viewed at: http://www.tocris.com/dispprod.php?ItemId=220997

• Full product information on bicalutamide can be viewed at: http://www.tocris.com/dispprod.php?ItemId=220998

About Tocris Bioscience

Tocris Bioscience (www.tocris.com) is a leading supplier of high performance chemicals, peptides and antibodies, with customers in all of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies, universities and research institutes. The Company is committed to making new life science discoveries possible by providing the highest performing and most innovative range of research reagents.

Tocris Bioscience products are used by scientists carrying out non-clinical research in fields such as cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and obesity. The Company's catalogue of over 3000 reagents represents a unique collection of novel, exclusive and licensed research tools. A major source of key signal transduction reagents and arguably the world leader in the supply of neuroscience reagents, the Company won the Queen's Award for Enterprise (International Business) in 2002.

Tocris Bioscience is the trading name for the companies in the Tocris Cookson Group. Tocris Cookson Ltd is privately held and headquartered in Bristol, UK. Its US subsidiary, Tocris Cookson Inc, is located in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. There are approximately 50 employees in the Group worldwide, operating out of two sites in the UK and one in the US.

For more information about Tocris Bioscience visit www.tocris.com.

If you would like to be kept informed about Tocris’ new products by email, please sign up for our monthly e-alert service.

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of meaningful prescription medicines and supplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US$ 31.6 billion and is a leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infectious disease medicines. For more information about AstraZeneca, please visit: www.astrazeneca.com

Back to news