The Cancer Therapeutics Program membership includes clinical and basic science researchers whose shared focus is the translation of novel cancer therapies into new standards of care. This includes introduction of novel therapies developed in laboratories within the Abramson Cancer Center. In the period of the current report there has also been an initiative taken with one company (Pfizer) through which Penn investigators have obtained access to selected Pfizer compounds to pursue avenues of mutual interest that would not ordinarily rise to the priority within the company of receiving industry funding. Through this mechanism, the unexpected activity of an activating antibody directed to CD40 in pancreatic cancer has been discovered, as well as activity of a cdk 4/6-directed cell cycle inhibitor in two malignancies. The success of this collaboration is a constructive start to developing models for the optimal interaction of industry and academia in a time of intense scrutiny. For novel therapies that originate from industry sources in general, priority has been placed on the development of therapies for which Program members have scientific expertise regarding the pathways being perturbed or a research interest in defining responsive and refractory subpopulations.
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