Six renowned cancer research centres join GSK in global consortium

London UK and Philadelphia, PA – GlaxoSmithKline has announced the formation of a Oncology Clinical and Translational Consortium (OCTC), a collaborative scientific research network comprised of six internationally renowned comprehensive cancer centres. The centres include Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (Toronto, Canada), Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, France), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, US), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, US), Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), and Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology – VHIO (Barcelona, Spain). The company says the creation of the consortium underscores its commitment to developing innovative patient therapies through rational combination and collaboration with external partners to access, cultivate, and stimulate scientific innovation.

In forming the consortium, GSK will gain OCTC’s expertise in preclinical, translational and clinical development of novel anticancer therapeutics including kinase inhibitors, epigenome modulating compounds and immunotherapies, which are key areas of focus of GSK’s cancer research drug discovery. The centres will have access to studies with GSK’s early stage oncology pipeline and opportunities to advance the next generation of novel oncology therapeutics. OCTC will foster scientific collaboration among the members and GSK.

“Each OCTC member institution is recognised internationally as a leader in clinical and translational research,” said Rafael Amado, head oncology R&D at GlaxoSmithKline. “The consortium together with GSK will design and execute research programs in a focused and expeditious way, allowing us to develop new diagnostic tools and medicines to better treat cancer patients.”

Projects driven through the OCTC will include Phase I/II single agent and novel combination trials with GSK’s targeted and immune therapies as well as translational and preclinical studies.