On May 21, 2008 Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, reported that Cancer Research Technology (CRT) has purchased 2,000 Maybridge Fragments as the foundation of its new fragment screening library (Press release, Cancer Research Technology, MAY 21, 2008, View Source [SID1234523531]). Wholly owned by the internationally renowned charity, Cancer Research UK, CRT is a specialist oncology-focused development and commercialisation company. Selected for its high quality, the Maybridge Fragment Collection will be used in CRT’s established Discovery Laboratories in London and Cambridge, for fragment-based screening, a key technology to accelerate the identification of drug leads against novel cancer targets.

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"Having reviewed several vendor catalogues with a focus on fragment collections for a discrete selection of heterocyclic small molecules with suitable properties, we ultimately chose the Maybridge Fragment Collection due to its superior overall fit to our requirements," explained Dr. Martin Swarbrick, Group Leader, Medicinal Chemistry, at CRT. "A good fit to ‘Rule-of-Three’ principles for physicochemical properties was essential, as well as lead-likeness and ‘drug-ability’."

Other key features of the Maybridge Fragment collection that influenced the CRT selection process include its high compound purity and chemical diversity, which is supported by related synthons elsewhere in the Maybridge catalogue. The availability of related building blocks featuring the same fragments from Maybridge stock facilitates the rapid construction of a library around chosen core fragments for hit-to-lead work and further optimisation.

"Other factors in our decision to purchase the Maybridge Fragment selection were their immediate and reliable availability for prompt follow up work, as well as the favourable pricing," added Swarbrick.

"We are very proud to have been selected by such an eminent cancer technology transfer company due to the quality, diversity and flexibility of our Fragment Collection," said Dr.Mick Durrant, Director of Business Development for Maybridge products at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We pride ourselves on our choice of off-the-shelf collections and the ability to pick from our carefully selected fragment lists. This enables our customers to create their own bespoke libraries, giving them both convenience and complete control over their fragment screening programmes to ultimately accelerate lead generation."

The Maybridge Fragment collection is a convenient source of pre-selected, high quality building blocks which is a distillation of Maybridge’s combined expertise in heterocyclic compound design. Over 30,000 compounds have been assembled to form a pool from which researchers can build their own customised fragment libraries. This collection has been selected for purity, low molecular weight and absence of inappropriate functionality. All compounds are easily re-supplied and available custom weighed in mgs or µmols.

Many of the Maybridge Fragments are fully "Rule-of-Three" compliant, which means that the physicochemical properties of these fragments are optimal; therefore increasing the probability of future "hit" successes. Consequently, Maybridge Fragments provide an ideal starting point for a lead optimisation drug discovery programme and the ultimate evolution of a new molecule in the drug discovery process.

On May 15, 2008 Cancer Research Technology Ltd (CRT), the specialist oncology development and commercialisation company, reported the opening of a drug discovery laboratory in Cambridge, adding to Cancer Research UK’s strong presence in the region (Press release, Cancer Research Technology, MAY 15, 2008, View Source [SID1234523532]).

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CRT Cambridge will house around 25 medicinal chemists, biochemists and biologists in its building off Coldham’s Lane – conveniently located for access to the University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute – with space for significant further expansion.

This is the first multi-disciplinary Discovery Laboratory for CRT to be established outside the main London laboratory at UCL’s Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research. In addition, small CRT laboratory groups are also being established at Cancer Research UK’s existing institutes in Manchester and Glasgow. This follows the placement of CRT knowledge transfer managers in these locations to be closer to the science and the scientists.

CRT’s Discovery Laboratories build on Cancer Research UK’s investment in world-class research, identifying potential novel therapies based on the cancer targets identified and validated in academia.

The need for expansion is driven by the successful progression of ground-breaking cancer discovery projects from early stage through to more resource intensive later stage projects. The expansion is also testament to the number of projects initiated on the back of discoveries arising from basic research funded by CRT’s parent charity, Cancer Research UK, and other partners throughout Europe and the US.

Dr Hamish Ryder, recently appointed to the role of Director of Discovery at CRT, said: "We’re delighted to be opening this unique drug discovery resource in Cambridge. It will help us to meet growing demand and enable projects to be completed more quickly, ensuring potential therapies are identified and progressed efficiently. We also hope to create many new partnerships with leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to supplement their drug development pipelines."

The announcement comes ahead of CRT’s presence at BIO2008, the world’s largest biotech conference, taking place in San Diego, USA, where CRT will launch partnering activities related to several exciting programmes from CRT’s laboratories.

CRT’s Discovery Laboratories execute both small molecule and biotherapeutic projects. Staff are drawn from academia and industry – and both communities will benefit from the expansion of these laboratories. CRT Cambridge consolidates CRT’s leading global position in translational drug discovery and biotherapeutic development.

Dr Keith Blundy, CEO of CRT, said: "The opening of CRT Cambridge forms part of our five-year expansion plan, which aims to locate CRT research staff close to or within major Cancer Research UK Institutes. We hope this exciting period of development will increase integration of basic and applied research, and ultimately benefit patients."

Advanced Viral Research has filed a 10-Q – Quarterly report [Sections 13 or 15(d)] with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .

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On May 6, 2008 REGiMMUNE Corporation, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, reported that it has closed its Series B financing for a total of $8 million U.S. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the company’s lead program, RGI-2001, to human clinical trials for graft versus host disease (GvHD) (Press release, REGimmune, MAY 6, 2008, View Source [SID1234642239]). Preclinical development for GvHD associated with bone marrow transplantation has been completed and an Investigation New Drug application is expected to be filed in late 2008.
"This financing underscores our ability to make significant progress towards the clinic and eventual product commercialization," commented Haru Morita, President and Chief Executive Officer of REGiMMUNE. "To thrive as REGiMMUNE has, in a very difficult business environment for many biotech companies in Japan, is a particularly great achievement."
New and existing investors include NIF SMBC Ventures Co., Ltd.; CSK Venture Capital Co., Ltd.; Japan Asia Investment Co., Ltd. and Yasuda Enterprise Development Co., Ltd.
The company’s proprietary technology platform, MultiVax, induces antigen-specific immune tolerance via induction of Tregs, a T-cell subset that plays a central role in controlling immune responses to self-antigens and pathogens when administered at the time of exposure to disease-causing antigens. Because of its specificity in targeting immune suppression, MultiVax is anticipated to exhibit higher efficacies with more favorable safety profiles over current immunomodulatory drugs.

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RGI-2001 for GvHD
REGiMMUNE plans to start development of its MultiVax product RGI-2001 to treat GvHD following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) primarily for bone marrow transplants. A major clinical challenge associated with allogeneic SCT is to maintain a fine balance of the immune system to prevent GvHD, serious infection, and/or recurrence of malignancy. This balance is critical because intensive immune suppression will result in infection and recurrence of malignancy while insufficient immune suppression may cause GvHD.
Serious GvHD occurs in up to 40% of HLA-matched allogeneic SCT cases, and 100% in haploidentical, related allogeneic SCT. Current treatment is prophylactic use of immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine A. High-dose steroids are administered once GvHD occurs but the condition often progresses to steroid refractory status and there is no proven second-line therapy for steroid refractory GvHD. Prevention and treatment of GvHD thus represent high unmet medical needs addressing serious, life-threatening conditions. If alloantigen specific, selective immune suppression can be induced with RGI-2001, it would be possible to suppress GvHD while maintaining protective immune responses to infection and recurrence of malignancy.

On April 28, 2008 World leading scientists were reported to be targeted by Cancer Research UK and its development and commercialisation arm Cancer Research Technology (CRT), in an effort to tackle some of cancer’s most pressing scientific challenges(Press release, Cancer Research Technology, APR 28, 2008, View Source [SID1234523380]).

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The initiative will see the charity hand pick ‘crack teams’ of up to five world class scientists – each a leader in their own discipline – who will be joined by some of the world’s foremost pharmaceutical companies. The teams will focus on an emerging cancer field identified by Cancer Research UK, and work towards translating basic science into new treatments and diagnostic tools to help beat cancer.

The first project, which will look at utilising cellular senescence – putting cancer cells to sleep to prevent the spread of cancers such as melanoma, has been identified – and a team of UK-based scientists put in place. The team has the expertise to harness this natural phenomenon and design tests to ‘screen’ for new potential drugs that can kick-start senescence in cancer patients. Two further projects are planned for 2009 and 2010, which will focus on cancer stem cells and the histone code, respectively.

Each new project will form a limited company, managed by CRT’s business team. Initially the projects will receive up to half a million pounds from Cancer Research UK over a two-year period. It is hoped each team will attract an industry partner which will bring know-how and further finance to the project. In return they will benefit by becoming a shareholder in the company and draw on Cancer Research UK’s expertise in translating basic scientific discoveries into new treatments for cancer.

Once the early development phase is complete, the industrial partner has the option to acquire the company and progress any joint discoveries into clinical compounds.

CRT’s senior business manager and scheme leader, Simon Youlton, said: "This initiative creates a unique opportunity for us to hand-pick a ‘crack team’ of scientists wherever they may be based – rather than being tied to a particular academic institution or team which approaches us for funding.

"It enables us to pose an industrially relevant problem that Cancer Research UK wants solving and we hope it will help bridge the gap between academia and industry by combining commercial and scientific know how with the best and most dedicated brains in science."

Any profits arising from the success of the work will be shared between the charity and the research partners involved, with Cancer Research UK re-investing any proceeds in its future research work. The business relationships will be managed by CRT, who have more than 20 years experience in licensing patents and developing opportunities for new cancer drugs and diagnostics, working closely with licensees and the pharmaceutical industry.

The first company to be established in this scheme is being headed up by Nicol Keith – a University of Glasgow professor of molecular oncology at Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Laboratory in Glasgow. Professor Keith will be joined by scientists from London, Cambridge and Liverpool – and Horizon Discovery, a young oncology focused service company set up in Cambridge to engineer new cancer cell lines.

Nick Adams, director of business development at Antisoma – giving a pharmaceutical industry perspective – said: "Cancer Research UK is in an excellent position to select the emerging areas of science suitable for this kind of work and ensure success.

"This development programme fits well with industry’s approach to harnessing the potential of scientists based at key cancer research institutes, and has the potential to turn exciting scientific discoveries into real, marketable technology which can be used to help fight cancer."

Cancer Research UK’s chief executive Harpal Kumar said: "In order to help more people survive a diagnosis of cancer, we urgently need to find new and effective ways of diagnosing and treating the disease. To do this we must continue to invest in early-stage laboratory research to help us get to the bottom of some of the deepest mysteries that cancer poses."

"This exciting scheme represents a new way to take forward the potential of our early scientific research in a cost effective manner, and to work with businesses which have a proven record in achieving success. "