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Partnering

Collaboration and partnering have been central to the culture of Astex since the company was first established. In addition to the successful partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, which have led to three marketed drugs and multiple products in clinical development, Astex has established productive collaborations with many of the world’s leading academic research centers.

Oncology

Our research in oncology is supported through collaborations with groups including The Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), The Northern Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Newcastle (NICR) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK); the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in the USA and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and more recently with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Australia.

CNS

Our research into diseases of the CNS is supported by a growing network of leading academic research groups, disease charity’s and consortia focused on the research and development of novel treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Dementia Consortium

Astex is a member of the Dementia Consortium, a charity-private partnership set up between Alzheimer’s Research UK, MRC Technology and five pharmaceutical companies. The consortium provides drug discovery resources, project management, industry expertise and funding to support collaborative target validation of potential novel drug targets from academia and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).

Dementia Discovery Fund

Astex is a funding partner in the SV Life Science run Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture fund set up to promote innovation in dementia and support the next generation of drug discovery approaches for neurodegenerative disease.

“The ultimate goal of our partnerships is to find novel targets that will work with our technology, and then use our technology to identify small-molecule ligands to validate the biology and ultimately develop new drugs.”