AstraZeneca and Oxford Cancer Biomarkers agree alliance

AstraZeneca and Oxford Cancer Biomarkers have announced a new research alliance to find biomarkers associated with a new oncology treatment from AstraZeneca.

Utilising Oxford Cancer Biomarkers' proprietary platform CancerNav, the companies will aim to rapidly generate predictive biomarkers for an undisclosed drug, with the intention of developing a means of predicting how patients will respond to the treatment.

The agreement also gives AstraZeneca the option to license biomarkers from the programme, thus strengthening its capabilities in the emerging field of targeted cancer therapies.

CancerNav has been shown to offer a strong performance at every stage of the process, from biomarker discovery to clinical validation.

Andrew Hughes, vice-president of clinical oncology at AstraZeneca, said: "We are excited to be working with Oxford Cancer Biomarkers to explore how their novel approaches can contribute to our biomarker strategy in the early stages of drug development."

Earlier this month, the company announced that its global biologics research and development arm MedImmune is to acquire AlphaCore Pharma, a US-based biotechnology company.