News
Collaboration as a key factor in cancer research consortia
One of the great challenges of medical research is the translation of a laboratory discovery into an effective treatment for patients. At Lygature, we strongly believe that building international, multi-stakeholder partnerships improves and accelerates this process, leading to better outcomes for patients. Our mission is to deliver breakthrough innovations in medical technology and drug development by providing partnership management in research consortia. For this year’s World Cancer Day, we share an update about our involvement in partnerships that focus on cancer.
Oncode Institute
Oncode Institute unites more than 900 excellent fundamental cancer researchers in the Netherlands. Oncode’s mission is to drive innovation in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The ultimate goal is to help patients survive, improve the quality of life for those affected, and contribute to a more affordable healthcare system. Oncode Institute translates fundamental insights from cancer biology into new diagnostics, new drugs and innovative treatments. Lygature was instrumental in the setup of the Institute from the very early start in 2017, supporting with program management, communication, IT, HR and financial expertise. Now that the institute is established and running, Lygature is involved in communication and HR activities.
Oncode-PACT
We urgently need to innovate the way we develop cancer treatments, since the development of cancer treatments is a high-risk, expensive and time-consuming process. More importantly, new treatments often are only effective in a subset of the intended patient population. To improve the development of cancer treatments, Oncode-PACT will integrate, scale up and innovate existing public and private preclinical drug development expertise in the Netherlands. Oncode-PACT is funded by the Dutch Growth Fund. Lygature supports the Oncode-PACT consortium by providing partnership management as well as communication and dissemination expertise.
PERSIST-SEQ
Cancer takes 9.6 million lives each year, 90% of which result from untreatable cancer relapse occurring after initially effective treatment. Therapeutic resistance is one of the primary causes of cancer death and is clinically difficult to predict, prevent or treat. The ultimate goal of the Innovative Medicines Initiative-funded PERSIST-SEQ project is to improve the understanding of therapeutic resistance in cancer and create effective strategies to improve cancer treatment and prevent drug resistance. As a result of this effort, the project anticipates a significant step forward for the cancer community and its understanding of tumour plasticity. This can change the way scientists and clinicians view cancer and its related drug development. Lygature was instrumental in the set-up phase of the PERSIST-SEQ consortium. In PERSIST-SEQ, Lygature leads the work on partnership management, and provides communication and dissemination expertise.
HPV-Kankervrij
The Taskforce HPV-kankervrij.nl, funded by Friends of Erasmus, aims for an HPV vaccination coverage of >90%, cervical cancer screening participation of >70%, and better treatments of all HPV-related cancers in the Netherlands. Together with medical professionals, patients, and foundations, Lygature is developing tools and dissemination events to help first-line healthcare professionals in providing their patients with relevant information about HPV-related cancers, and to educate them about the importance of vaccination and screening. Lygature is responsible for the project’s communication, dissemination and stakeholder management.
The European Lead Factory
The European Lead Factory (ELF), a long-running IMI-funded project, helps researchers screen their drug targets against its library of approximately 535,000 compounds with the potential of finding high-quality leads for new medicines. Over the course of nearly 10 years, the consortium has brought together a community of committed partners to address the drug discovery needs for a wide variety of therapeutic areas. One of the key areas of focus is cancer research with oncology programs making up almost 40% of the ELF portfolio. Offering new hope for cancer drugs, the project has helped identify two drug candidates for cancer treatment that have progressed to phase 1 clinical trial testing in humans. Lygature played a central role in setting up the ELF and as coordinator provides scientific management, leadership and communication support.
MOMENTUM
The goal of the MOMENTUM registry is to evaluate the introduction of an innovative image-guided radiotherapy solution, the MR-Linac Unity. It collects clinical and technical data from patients treated at 15 different cancer centres around the world. This data helps to define how different types of tumours should be treated and to identify which patients can benefit the most from this approach. Lygature plays a pivotal role in amalgamating the partnership, creating one coherent research consortium. Lygature provides support in translating the project aims in clear contractual language, and acts as a contact point for internal and external stakeholders
Do you want to know more about how Lygature can support your partnership? Please contact Jon de Vlieger, Strategy Director at Lygature.