Curie-Cancer, Servier renew breast cancer partnership

Partnership to be extended three more years, with both organizations to share resultant intellectual property

Kelsey Kaustinen
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PARIS—Curie-Cancer, the industry partner activity arm of Institut Curie, and Servier have announced the renewal of their partnership to identify therapeutic targets for treating triple-negative breast cancer, extending the partnership for an additional three years. The two organizations will share all intellectual property that results from their work. No financial details were disclosed.
 
“The key driver for Servier has always been research. The company allocates over 25 per cent of its turnover to this activity, making it one of the leading international pharmaceutical laboratories,” Pascal Touchon, director of scientific collaboration at Servier, commented in a statement. “Servier is delighted with the Institut Curie partnership, which fulfills our primary mission of discovering particularly innovative medicinal products that address an unmet medical need and making them available to patients. Our partnership with the Institut Curie has already helped us to identify a potential therapeutic target, kinase TTK/MPS1, an enzyme involved in cell cycle regulation.”
 
The two organizations have worked together since 2005, combining their experience to search the Institut Curie’s library of breast cancer samples. The initial partnership sought to identify molecules with the potential to be developed into new products for triple-negative breast cancer patients that do not respond to existing therapies. Several leads have been discovered as a result, including TTK/MPS1, and a product candidate that acts on the kinase is currently in preclinical development.
 
Triple-negative breast cancers consist of those cancers which do not express estrogen, progesterone or Her-2 receptors, and make up approximately 15 percent of all breast cancer cases. This subset of cancer is particularly aggressive, and patients presenting with triple-negative breast cancer generally respond poorly or not at all to existing treatment options.
 
“The Institut Curie is certainly pleased with the terms of this long-term partnership, where there is a genuine division of labor. The intellectual property is also evenly split, meaning that if the work in hand results in an innovative medicinal product, the Institut Curie will receive royalties that it can reinvest in new research,” Damien Salauze, director of Curie-Cancer, said in a press release. “The opportunity to help a local manufacturer to expand operations in its area of expertise is an additional source of satisfaction for the Institut Curie. This is another example of the values enshrined in the Institut Carnot label, which we were awarded in 2011 in recognition of our commitment to providing practical solutions for industry and ultimately, for patients.”
 
“The efforts coordinated by Thierry Dubois have involved many doctors and researchers with various specialisms, including our own team of bioinformatics experts,” added Sergio Roman-Roman, director of translational research at the Institut Curie. “It is important to reiterate that this partnership is underpinned by a highly constructive approach, especially with regard to the quality of interaction between our teams of staff.”
 
 
SOURCE: Institut Curie press release

Kelsey Kaustinen

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