Advinus Therapeutics and Moffitt Cancer Centre have entered into a strategic partnership to advance its discoveries to the clinics. The former has launched a Special Purpose Vehicle incorporated as a separate legal entity, Advinus Canada, to advance discovery programs primarily from academia.

Two promising targeted cancer therapies (Rb:Raf-1 disruptor and ROCK inhibitor) developed by Moffitt scientists are selected as the first set.  The Rb:Raf-1 disruptor holds great clinical potential because disruption of the Rb:Raf-1 interaction leads to inhibition of cellular signalling pathways involved in cell growth, blood vessel creation, and the spread of cancer cells.  Similarly, the ROCK (Rho-associated protein kinase) inhibitor may have significant patient value because expression of its target ROCK1 is significantly higher in breast tumour tissue and is associated with aggressive disease, the spread of cancer cells and poorer prognosis.

Now Advinus has selected the Rb-Raf and ROCK programmes from Moffitt's Chemical Biology and Molecular Medicine program as part of the first set of programmes to progress in 2013.

"The new era of pharmaceutical research and development is going to witness innovative models for globally-networked partnerships that will extract the best each partner has to offer," said Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, chief executive officer and managing director of Advinus.

"The Moffitt-Advinus collaboration is established along these lines with an aim to identify novel drug candidates to meet clinical needs and generate a benchmark for return on investment for pharmaceutical research and development,” he added.

Moffitt has a strong track record of oncology drug discovery and clinical research. Advinus excels in translating early discovery into potential products. The synergistic relationship is aimed at accelerating the translation of novel treatments for cancer from lab to clinic. Another potential dimension of the collaboration includes performing early stage clinical trials at Moffitt with various oncology drugs provided by Advinus.

"We are delighted to embark on this exciting partnership with Advinus to leverage their skills and expertise to advance Moffitt therapies towards commercialisation for improved patient care. This partnership is ripe for future growth and expansion to include other therapeutic technologies made by our internationally renowned scientists," said Jarett Rieger, director of Office of Technology Management and Commercialisation, Moffitt Cancer Centre.