NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Systems Medicine, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cell Therapeutics, has penned a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the National Cancer Institute to develop targeted cancer drugs, Cell Therapeutics said today.
Specifically, the five-year alliance calls for the companies to research human monoclonal antibodies, peptides, and small molecules that affect signal transduction through the insulin-like growth factor receptor type I and the insulin receptor.
Terms of the deal call for Systems Medicine to have an exclusive option to elect an exclusive or non-exclusive commercialization license to any inventions developed under the agreement. Scientists at Systems Medicine and parent Cell Therapeutics will work with researchers of the NCI’s Protein Interaction Group.
If the research is “successful,” Cell Therapeutics would have “exclusive rights to negotiate with NIH for a product that targets the ligand that activates the IGF receptor, unlike current approaches to IGF inhibition that target the receptor directly," James Bianco, president and CEO of Cell Therapeutics, said in a statement.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.