Cancer Therapeutics Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and its successor research and commercialisation entity Canthera Discovery have taken out the Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) Award for Research Commercialisation at its Innovation Awards ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday night (March 31).
Cancer Therapeutics CRC ran for 13 years (2007-2020) and has been one of the Australian Government CRC Program’s biggest success stories, landing deals for ground-breaking cancer therapies with pharma giants for a headline value of close to A$1.4bn.
Cancer Therapeutics CRC led a collaborative partnership of leading medical research institutes, universities and biotechnology companies, translating Australian research discoveries into new cancer treatments ready for clinical development. Key research partners included the CSIRO, Monash University, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Griffith University, Children’s Cancer Institute, and WEHI.
Post-CRC funding, research and commercial work has been carried forward by Canthera Discovery, which has now firmly established itself as a global leader as it develops new drugs which have potential clinical applications for both cancer and non-cancer disorders affecting millions of people worldwide. One program is now in phase 1 clinical trials for the potential treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic breast, prostate or lung cancer.
In addition to the large pharma deals, multiple innovations have been successfully licensed
