The France-based Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, Europe’s biggest health center devoted to oncology, said last week it had formed a strategic partnership with AstraZeneca focused on early oncology drug development.

The two entities have worked together over the past five years, as the London-based AstraZeneca has entrusted Gustave Roussy with a growing number of Phase I trials, the company said.

The two will develop a joint strategic collaboration plan that will be overseen by a joint steering committee, they said.

AstraZeneca will give Gustave Roussy access to the company’s entire portfolio of anti-cancer molecules for pre-clinical, translational and early clinical trials, with the goal of targeting molecular aberrations that encourage individual cancers through the modulation of cellular signaling pathways. This will help gain better understanding of how a patient's immune system interacts with cancer, AstraZeneca said.

The partnership includes a number of parallel and interconnected projects that will cover pre-clinical, translational and clinical phases of drug development, AstraZeneca and Gustave Roussy said. — Kellen Owings

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