HITGEN and Cancer Research UK’s Manchester institute enter license agreement in lung cancer

Tuesday, 28th February, 2017

Cancer Research UK, Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the charity’s commercial arm, and HitGen Ltd, a privately held biotech company focused on early drug discovery, announced today that they have entered into a licence agreement to develop a novel class of drugs against lung cancer.

The work will be carried out by scientists at Cancer Research UK’s Drug Discovery Unit at The University of Manchester, after the new family of compounds was identified using HitGen’s leading technology platform. This involved screening vast DNA encoded libraries, containing many hundreds of millions of small molecules with drug-like properties synthesized on chemically diverse scaffolds. A number of new small molecule leads for this important therapeutic target in lung cancer nominated by Cancer Research UK were revealed.

This is the first licence taken through the ongoing collaboration between CRT, Cancer Research UK’s Manchester Institute Drug Discovery Group and HitGen, who are eligible for milestone payments as the project progresses.

Dr Jin Li, CEO of HitGen, said: "We’re delighted to announce this significant project milestone. We look forward to seeing the progress made by the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute."

Dr Donald Ogilvie, head of drug discovery at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute at The University of Manchester, said: "We’re very pleased to work with HitGen to find promising leads against these more difficult targets that may otherwise not be developed."

"As part of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, we’re determined to get new lung cancer treatments to patients quicker. Identifying this promising candidate drug offers the potential to help boost survival from this devastating disease."

ENDS

For media enquiries contact Ailsa Stevens in the Cancer Research UK press office on+44 20 3469 8300 or, out of hours, on+44 7050 264 059.

Notes to editors

* The Drug Discovery Unit builds upon fundamental biology discoveries made within the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). The University of Manchester, including the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, joined forces with Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust to form the MCRC, allowing doctors and scientists to work closely together to turn scientific advances into patient benefits sooner.

About HitGen Ltd

HitGen is an innovation driven life science company based in Chengdu, China and Houston, Texas. HitGen has established a unique platform for early drug discovery research. Our DNA encoded libraries contain more than 10 billion novel, diverse, drug-like compounds. The library is founded on many hundreds of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed with tractable chemistry and proven results for finding drug leads against targets from known and novel protein classes. 

About Cancer Research Technology

Cancer Research Technology (CRT) is a specialist commercialisation and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK, the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

About Cancer Research UK

• Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.
• Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
• Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.
• Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates in the UK double in the last forty years.
• Today, 2 in 4 people survive cancer. Cancer Research UK’s ambition is to accelerate progress so that 3 in 4 people will survive cancer within the next 20 years.
• Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
• Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.