GSK Teams With MD Anderson to Develop Cancer Immunotherapies

GlaxoSmithKline and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston will work together to identify new therapeutic approaches, evaluate patient outcomes in clinical testing and use that information to develop drugs that stimulate the body’s own natural defenses against cancer.

The alliance, announced Tuesday, will “build on the strengths of both organizations to innovate in translational research” and “enhance drug development programs” in the immunotherapy arena, said Axel Hoos, vice president of oncology R&D at the UK pharma giant.

This is not GSK’s first waltz with MD Anderson; in December 2012, the two announced a deal to develop and license antibodies to stimulate the secondary receptor OX40, which enhances immune function.

In December, GSK formed the Oncology Clinical and Translational Consortium with MD Anderson and five other internationally renowned cancer centers.

Immunology is all the rage in cancer research, as treatments shift away from the indiscriminate methods of chemotherapy and toward treatments, such as PD-1 inhibitors, that stimulate the body’s own natural anticancer defenses.

Merck’s lambrolizumab, for example, was granted breakthrough therapy designation a year ago and is currently in Phase II for non-small cell lung cancer. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s nivolumab, also a PD-1 inhibitor, is currently in Phase III, and the drugmaker has five other drugs in its immuno-oncology pipeline. — Lena Freund

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