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Bayer, Broad Aim to Develop Therapeutics Targeting Cancer Genome Alterations

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Bayer Healthcare and the Broad Institute today announced a strategic alliance to jointly discover and develop therapeutic agents that target cancer genome alterations.

As part of the five-year deal, the partners will share their expertise on identifying and characterizing genes that are associated with cancer. They will also apply their screening platforms on compounds found in their libraries in order to identify those with potential as therapeutic agents.

The collaboration, they said, will be based on joint decision making. Rights to discoveries resulting from the collaboration will be equally shared by Bayer and the Broad, and joint research and joint steering committees will be set up to initiate and select projects and to serve as governance structures.

Bayer will have the option for an exclusive license to therapeutic agents at preclinical stage development, the partners said. They did not disclose additional financial and other terms.

Andreas Busch, head of Global Drug Discovery and a member of Bayer Healthcare's Executive Committee, said in a statement, "The Broad Institute's scientists have created impressive systematic catalogues of mutational changes across different types of tumors, laying a foundation for the development of new cancer therapies and diagnostics. The alliance is another significant step underlining our engagement in the field of oncology and personalized medicine."

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