Pfizer, AstraZeneca, join UK GBP 5.6 M project on gene testing for personalised medicines

Astra Zeneca and Pfizer are joining forces with the charity Cancer Research UK in a GBP5.6 million project to establish standards and processes for using gene tests to identify patents who will respond to targeted cancer drugs.

The aim is to develop a model that could be scaled-up to a UK national service that would underpin the development and roll-out of personalised medicines.

James Peach, director of Cancer Research UK’s stratified medicines programme said providing access to a standardised national gene testing service will make sure cancer patients get the right treatment. “By acting now we can ensure patients benefit from personalised cancer drugs as soon as they become available.”

This vision cannot be achieved without partnership, Peach said. “We know the support of AstraZeneca and Pfizer will be valuable in facing the many challenges that lie ahead.”

The two pharmaceutical companies are making an (undisclosed) financial contribution and will get access to a database of tumour genetic information that could be applied to select patients for clinical trials who are more likely to respond to drugs that are targeted at specific genes.

The programme, which has the backing of the UK government and the National Health Service, also involves diagnostics companies. The first stage will involve selecting six hospitals and three laboratories to collect tumour samples from 9,000 patients and apply a number of genetic tests that have been selected by a scientific advisory board.

This element of the programme will be supported by the UK Technology Strategy Board, which is currently offering grants to industry-led collaborations, to develop tests that can simultaneously test for a number of gene mutations that occur in the five most common cancers, with the aim of making genetics tests cheaper, more reliable and more widely available.

The analyses from the 9,000 tumour samples will be fed into the tumour genetic database, and at the same time processes and procedures - for example, getting informed consent from  patients, and ensuring the appropriate handling and shipping of samples - will be tested and standardised.

Although there is some limited tumour gene testing in place currently in the UK, this is a long way from being a coordinated national system. The intention is that this project provides a model that can be scaled-up as more targeted cancer drugs become available.

Such a national gene testing network is critical to pharma’s ability to develop and commercialise personalised medicines. Gene tests will allow the right patients to be recruited to clinical trials, increasing the chance of positive results. It will also enable companies to demonstrate the higher added value of targeted treatments to regulators and payers, and mean targeted treatments can get to access national markets.