US-based Crown Bioscience has entered into an agreement with the UK’s University of York to exclusively licence and commercialise a range of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models developed by the university researchers for prostate cancer.
Across the world, more than 14 million patients are affected with prostate cancer, which is the second most common cancer in men.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Prostate cancer has long been underrepresented at the preclinical modelling stage of drug development, and as such, the US firm is expecting significant demand for this new service offering.
Crown Bioscience president Jean-Pierre Wery said: "This agreement benefits cancer researchers around the world because these models will now become more widely available.
"With this agreement, we can offer researchers one of the largest, if not the largest, collection of well-validated prostate cancer PDX models. The university’s models will be marketed alongside our industry-leading HuPrime collection and run to CrownBio’s meticulous standard."
CrownBio intends to expand characterisation, including next-generation sequencing, for the development of new models resistant to current clinical therapies.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataDerived from primary tissue, the collection of PDX models include pretreated and naive material, plus examples of both clinically diagnosed castration-resistant (CRPC) and hormone sensitive prostate cancer.
The PDX models were developed by Dr Anne Collins in the laboratory of professor Norman Maitland in the Department of Biology at the University of York, with major funding secured from the independent regional charity Yorkshire Cancer Research.
With its wide collection of relevant models and predictive tools, Crown Bioscience offers translational platforms to advance oncology and metabolic disease research.
York YCR cancer research unit director Norman Maitland said: "We’re delighted to work with CrownBio, the market leader in PDX and translational models, to help us bring these models to the wider research community.
"For many years, the preclinical development of the new therapies, sorely needed for prostate cancer, has relied on testing in models derived in the 1980s. Researchers will now be able to use multiple near-patient xenografts, from different stages and grades of prostate cancer.
"This initiative should provide the best indicator yet to drug developers of the particular patient group, in which a new treatment will be most effective."
Image: Micrograph of prostatic adenocarcinoma, conventional (acinar) type, the most common form of prostate cancer. Photo: courtesy of Nephron.
