By Kristy Dorsey
The University of Edinburgh has signed a multi-million pound licensing deal with a US drug firm to advance research into new medicines for hard-to-treat cancers.
Nuvectis Pharma of New Jersey has paid an upfront fee of $3.5 million (£2.5m) for the exclusive worldwide rights to a novel small molecule developed at the university’s Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre within the Institute of Genetics and Cancer. Known as NXP900, the compound inhibits the activity of SRC/YES1, a protein family associated with cancer growth.
Nuvectis is expected to begin studies later this year that will lead to an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration. The licensing agreement includes further upfront and milestone payments to the university, plus royalties on sales of any future drug treatments.
READ MORE: Scottish spin-out raises funds in battle to overcome cancer
The SRC protein drives growth of tumours in diseases such as breast, colon, prostate, pancreatic and ovarian cancer, while YES1 is associated with tumours affecting the lungs, head, neck and oesophagus.
The discovery of NXP900 follows 10 years of research led by professors Neil Carragher and Asier Unciti-Broceta. The deal was facilitated by Edinburgh Innovations, the university’s commercialisation service.
Margaret Frame, director of the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, said: “Every researcher working in this field hopes their discoveries can reach patients and save lives, and this agreement with Nuvectis promises just that, using a new way to attack cancer that has long evaded science.
“This new drug is the result of combining advanced cell-based screening with innovative medicinal chemistry to select compounds with exciting biological activities, testament to the power of innovating academic cancer drug discovery pioneered in the institute over many years.”
READ MORE: Glasgow start-up delivers technology to improve the treatment of cancer
Researchers at the university will continue conducting collaborative research with Nuvectis, which was founded in 2020 by a team of industry veterans including chief executive Ron Bentsur. The licensing agreement is based on research findings published in August in the journal Cancer Research.
“We are thrilled to partner with the University of Edinburgh to advance the development of NXP900, which has demonstrated outstanding preclinical activity to date,” Mr Bentsur said.
George Baxter, chief executive of Edinburgh Innovations, added: “As far as turning academic research into impact goes, you don’t get much more rewarding than finding new treatments for cancer. This partnership is very significant, and we’re very proud to have helped it reach this point.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here