Amsterdam UMC Cancer Center Amsterdam and Immunotherapy Center participate in €325 million Oncode-PACT initiative to accelerate and improve oncology drug development
We are proud to share that the National Growth Fund invests 325 million euros in the Oncode-PACT plan to accelerate the preclinical development process of cancer drugs. With this investment, Oncode-PACT will develop valuable drug candidates faster and cheaper and thus bring them to patients sooner. This will improve the quality of life of cancer patients while strengthening the future economic earning capacity of the Netherlands.
The development of a medicine takes on average 10 to 15 years, from the first scientific insights obtained in the laboratory, to the moment that patients can have access to it. However, it is a common occurrence that a drug candidate is not effective enough, or it does not reach the right patient for other reasons during this lengthy process. Low success rates due to often late failures in drug development come at the price of high investments that ultimately do not lead to new drugs for patients. The current development process of anti-cancer drugs is therefore expensive, takes too long, and usually works only for a subset of the intended target patients. Oncode-PACT aims to provide solutions to these problems.
Patients in the lab
Oncode-PACT has the ambition to develop new demonstrably effective cancer drugs faster and more cost-effectively. The medical need is urgent, because cancer remains the number one cause of death in our country. Alain Kummer, Managing Director Oncode Institute and Chairman of Oncode-PACT, explains: “Oncode-PACT places the patient at the center of the entire drug development chain. In the current situation, the preclinical development process is still insufficiently connected with the clinical practice, and we focus on the patient too late in the drug development process. By deploying patient data and tissues from patients early in the development process – for example organoid technology and artificial intelligence – it is possible to assess whether a potential drug could be effective and safe much earlier in the process than is currently possible, and with greater certainty. In addition, animal testing can be decreased with this new approach.”
This way, Oncode-PACT brings the patient into the lab. This reduces the chance that drug candidates drop out during late-stage clinical studies. With the approach envisioned by Oncode-PACT, it will be clearer before the start of clinical research, in which patient group the greatest effectiveness can be expected and under which circumstances. This makes it possible to approach the important phase of clinical research in a more targeted and faster way.
Impact on patients
The way of working within Oncode-PACT ensures that patients receive more viable treatments as early as possible. Thanks to this new way of drug development, it will be possible in the future to offer tailor-made treatment at a much earlier stage of a patient’s disease and make a difference that way.
As partner within Oncode-PACT, we are involved in the pre-clinical testing and development of therapeutic cancer vaccines and we will contribute to immune monitoring efforts to determine the immune status of the tumor microenvironment and lymph nodes and how this will impact therapy efficacy. Representing Amsterdam UMC, Prof Yvette van Kooyk, Prof Arjan Griffioen, and Prof Tanja de Gruijl will participate in the Therapeutic Vaccines workstream. We are looking forward to productive and exciting times to come!
For more information, contact Prof. Tanja de Gruijl, or see oncode.nl/Oncode-PACT, or read about the National Growth Fund and the granted investment project proposals at: www.nationaalgroeifonds.nl.