The Netherlands is pumping 325 million euros ($351 million) into preclinical cancer drug development. Using the cash, the Dutch National Growth Fund aims to provide specialist capabilities that help biotechs speed up development of oncology candidates.
Officials at the 20 billion euro Dutch National Growth Fund identified preclinical cancer drug development as a good use of money in the belief there is an opportunity to reduce the rate of attrition in the clinic. The project, called Oncode-PACT, will bring together researchers from multiple organizations to change how cancer drugs are developed. Alain Kummer, chairman of Oncode-PACT, set out the vision in a statement.
“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,” Kummer said.
Multiple groups will contribute to the achievement of that goal. Utrecht University Professor Albert Heck is heading up a working group on therapeutic vaccines. John Haanen and Lodewyk Wessels, researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, are respectively leading workstreams focused on cell and gene therapies and artificial intelligence. Immunicum, a biotech based in Sweden and the Netherlands, will bring its dendritic cell biology expertise to the consortium.
The plan is to make the expertise and facilities offered by Oncode-PACT available to Dutch biotechs and other organizations with cancer drug development programs that could benefit from the resources. Inge Jedema, head of translational cell therapy at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, laid out her group's role in the offer.
“Together with the center in Utrecht, we will be working as centers of expertise to help people from other centers or smaller companies that have great ideas but lack the highly specialized know-how. If we can join forces in the Netherlands in this way, our patients will be able to reap the benefits much sooner,” Jedema said.
The Dutch National Growth Fund has committed almost half of the 325 million euros upfront. The remaining 165 million euros are conditional.