Astellas and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute agree new alliance

Astellas has announced a new collaboration with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, focusing on the development of small molecule inhibitors of oncogenic K-Ras for the treatment of cancer.

The three-year research project will assess the benefits of using this approach to treat multiple different cancer types, including lung cancer. K-Ras is known to be the most commonly mutated oncogene in human cancers, making it a valuable target.

Dr Nathanael Gray, of the Cancer Biology Department at Dana-Farber and professor at Harvard Medical School, will lead this collaborative research. He is a recognised expert in the field, having published a paper on the subject earlier this year.

In addition to providing critical research support, Astellas has an option to license and commercialise any therapies arising from this collaboration.

Dr Kenji Yasukawa, senior vice-president and chief strategy officer at Astellas Pharma, said: "This collaboration with Dana-Farber perfectly illustrates this strategy and it is our hope that this collaboration to advance drug discovery will bring innovative cancer treatments to patients around the world."

This comes after the firm agreed a collaboration with a Harvard Medical School investigator last month to study new treatments for retinal degeneration.