A promising new cancer drug developed by Australian scientists has been licensed to US pharmaceutical giant Merck in a deal worth up to $730 million.
Under the terms of the license, Merck US will now further develop the drug, taking it to clinical trials, with a view to worldwide commercialisation.
The drug was developed by the Cancer Therapeutics CRC (CTx), a collaboration between CSIRO, Monash University, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
It will receive most of the financial returns, while UK-based Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research Technology - which supported the project - will receive the rest.
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Dr Tom Peat, from CSIRO, said the drug is designed to inhibit the protein PRMT5, which is associated with cancers including mantle cell lymphoma, lung cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
"Patients who have these types of cancers often have high levels of this protein, which is unfortunately also linked to poor survival rates," he said in a statement.
"Using our recombinant protein production facilities, we were able to produce samples of these proteins, crystallise them for structure based drug design and support the consortium's pre-commercial investigations and trials."
The CTx consortium was able to develop a drug that binds to this protein, allowing it to target the cancerous cells.
"We're thrilled to be part of this development, which has the potential to make a real difference for patients here in Australia and around the globe."
