Celgene has formed an academic research consortium to develop innovative new cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.
The company will collaborate with four National Cancer Institute centres in the US over the next ten years to hasten the delivery of disease-altering programmes.
Celgene has further entered into deals with each of the partners – worth $12.5m a piece – to secure rights to develop and bring to market any of the resulting cancer therapies from the collaboration.
The institutions will present “high-impact” research programmes to Celgene, with each treatment having sales potential of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the firm.
Bob Hugin, executive chairman of Celgene, said the consortium “is a paradigm-shifting collaboration that further strengthens our innovative ecosystem”.
He added that the US biopharmaceutical firm believes the “tremendous expertise of our collaboration partner institutions will be invaluable in identifying new therapies for cancer patients”.
The institutions involved are: The Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania; The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Columbia University Medical Center; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins; and The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Collectively they care for 30,000 new cancer patients every year, with a focus on basic and clinical research, and clinical care.
In a joint statement the centres’ directors said: “The active and coordinated engagement, creative thinking and unique perspectives and expertise of each institution have made this collaboration a reality.
“Our shared vision and unified approach to biomedical research, discovery and development, combined with Celgene’s vast research, development and global commercial expertise, will enable us to accelerate the development and delivery of next-generation cancer therapies to patients worldwide.”