AstraZeneca announces cancer research alliance with University of Manchester

AstraZeneca is strengthening its cancer research capabilities through a new partnership with the University of Manchester.

The five-year collaboration agreement will see the organisations apply clinical trial bioinformatics to better identify the right cancer treatment for the right patient at the right time, thus allowing for the delivery of personalised therapies.

AstraZeneca will provide funding of 11.5 million pounds to support clinical bioinformatics research led by a team of investigators within the recently established Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

The research will be carried out in partnership with the state-of-the-art clinical trials unit of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, with projects to include the development of a new bioinformatics system to capture and integrate clinical trial safety, efficacy, biomarker and drug distribution data in real time. 

It will also support new training programmes in clinical research and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling for investigators to understand the distribution and clinical effects of medicines within the body.

Mene Pangalos, executive vice-president for innovative medicines and early development at AstraZeneca, said: "This collaboration is exciting because it will eventually allow us to incorporate important data from clinical trials into a format that can be reviewed in real time by healthcare professionals and matched with information about cancer medicines."