Melbourne, Australia, 24th February 2014- Cancer Therapeutics CRC (CTx) is pleased to announce that the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program has agreed to continue their funding for a further six years. The application, submitted in June 2013, highlighted both the success of CTx since its formation in July 2007 as well as the plans to build on that success. The focus of the continued drug discovery and development activities will be on the major cause of cancer deaths: that is, the process of metastasis where tumours spread and grow as secondary cancers in other organs such as lung, liver, bone and brain. In addition, CTx will work with Australia’s experts in childhood cancer to improve the development and targeting of new therapies for children with cancer.
Formed under the CRC Program model in 2007, CTx assembled a partnership of leading Australian Research Institutes and Universities together with end-user companies to take Australia’s top cancer research outputs and translate them into new therapies for cancer patients. While many of the necessary capabilities exist individually within the partners, CTx focused on filling essential gaps, coordinating these capabilities, and “enabling the rigor” to run industrialised project-focused drug development. CTx has developed four novel drugs over the past seven years which have been licensed to companies to take them through the clinical development stage.
“The continued funding is a great endorsement of our achievements”, said Warwick Tong, CTx CEO, “and more importantly of our vision for the next phase where we take our established drug development ability and focus it on beating cancer recurrence and improving outcomes for Australian adults and children with cancer.”
Dr Deborah Rathjen, CEO of Bionomics Limited a commercial partner of CTx, commented, “this news means that we can continue to build on the great research base in Australia and retain the benefits of that research and the commercialisation that follows”.
In the new application CTx extended their partnership to include additional research groups and Australian drug development companies in a co-investment model where every dollar of CRC Program support is matched by more than 2.5 dollars from the research and commercial partners.
About Cancer Therapeutics CRC
CTx is a small molecule drug discovery company that is translating innovative cancer biology research into lead and preclinical stage drug candidates. In particular, it is targeting novel cancer pathways associated with the tumour microenvironment or growth, and to develop novel treatments for breast, prostate, melanoma, lung and brain cancers. Located in Melbourne, Australia, the Company was founded in January 2007 through collaboration between a number of Australia’s leading research institutions, and commercial organisations. Further information can be found at www.cancercrc.com
The new extended partnership is comprised of the following organisations:
Alchemia Limited, Bionomics Limited, The Cancer Council of Victoria, Cancer Trials Australia, Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, Clinical Genomics Pty Ltd, CSIRO, Griffith University, INCResearch Australia Pty Ltd, Medicines Development Limited, Melbourne Health, Monash University, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, SYNthesis Research Pty Ltd, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Ltd (VCCC)and The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
About CRC Australia
The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program is an Australian Government Initiative. The CRC program supports end-user driven research collaborations to address the major challenges facing Australia. Details of the complete results of the 16th Selection Round can be found at: http://minister.innovation.gov.au/ministers/macfarlane/media-releases/driving-research-and-delivering-results-australia
About Cancer
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Australia. One in two Australians will develop cancer in their lifetime and one in five will die of cancer. The vast majority, 90%, of those deaths will be caused by progressive metastatic disease (the secondary spread of cancer around the body). While much less common in children, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in Australian children.
Issued for and on behalf of CTx by Instinctif Partners
For more information please contact:
Warwick Tong
Chief Executive Officer
Cancer Therapeutics CRC Pty Ltd
Tel: +61 (0)450 296930 / +61 (0)3 93452143
e: warwick[at]cancercrc.com
Douglas Pretsell
Senior Consultant
Instinctif Partners
t : +61 (0)466 925 966
e: douglas.pretsell[at]instinctif.com
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