Bayer And German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Renew Alliance Against Cancer
Bayer and current partner German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) have mutually agreed to renew their strategic research alliance against cancer for another five years. The two companies have been in collaboration since 2009 to jointly develop new therapeutic options for cancer patients.
Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee Member and Global Drug Discovery Head Prof. Dr. Andreas Busch said, “We are looking forward to another five years of fruitful collaboration with the DKFZ. Together we have already initiated twenty-eight projects and twelve projects have reached important milestones. The DKFZ’s scientific excellence as Germany’s largest biomedical research institute perfectly matches with Bayer’s proven drug discovery and development expertise. There is still a huge medical need in the treatment of a number of tumor types and cancer in general.” Dr. Andreas said the alliance demonstrates Bayer’s ongoing commitment to develop novel therapies which can help cancer patients currently suffering from the disease.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Wiestler, CEO of the German Cancer Research Center said, “Increasingly, we can build on the excellent results of our basic research and transfer them to the clinic. For successful translation, we need strong partners: both in the clinic, where we can rely on the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg and on the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research, and in industry. The strategic alliance with Bayer HealthCare over the past five years has been extremely successful. Together we are able to advance promising projects with the prospect of reaching the clinic and hopefully the patients.” Dr. Wiestler expressed his pleasure in continuing the alliance for another five years.
28 ongoing anti-cancer projects have been jointly developed by the companies since the collaboration began. 12 of these have reached milestones and progressed into the compound screening phase to determine novel cancer drug candidates.
Bayer and DKFZ will invest up to 30 million euros in the next five years of the collaboration to address highly felt medical needs in cancer diagnosis and therapy.
Source: