Cancer Therapeutics CRC/Canthera Discovery win Research Commercialisation Award

04 April 2022

Pictured L-R: Dr Brendon Monahan, Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Ylva Bozikis, Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry, and Dr Paul Stupple, Director, Medicinal Chemistry. Brendon was the project leader on the KAT6A project and Ylva was the KAT6A chemistry leader. Ylva and Paul are employed by Monash University and are based at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Canthera Discovery's predecessor, Cancer Therapeutics CRC, has won the Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) Excellence in Innovation Award for Research Commercialisation at an award ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra last week. 

Cancer Therapeutics CRC ran for 13 years (2007-2020) and was recognised for landing deals in ground-breaking cancer therapies with pharma giants for a headline value of close to A$1.4bn. It has seven licensed programs in active development, including two currently in clinical trials.

Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) CEO Jane O’Dwyer said they were delighted to present Canthera Discovery and Cancer Therapeutics CRC with the Award for Research Commercialisation. 

“The CRC Program funded Cancer Therapeutics CRC with $71m over 13 years. In potentially returning some ten times that investment and counting in licensing deals, Cancer Therapeutics CRC and Canthera Discovery have been a shining example of the strength of the CRC Program in bridging the gap between domestic world class research and innovation, and global commercialisation,” said CRA's Jane O'Dwyer. 

Upon receiving the award, Dr Brendon Monahan, Canthera Discovery Chief Scientific Officer claimed the secret of success of Cancer Therapeutics CRC and now Canthera, was driven by its people. 

“Drug discovery requires a multi-disciplinary approach and collaboration is at the centre of everything we do. We would like to thank and acknowledge:
• our research partners - WEHI, CSIRO, Monash University, Griffith University, Children’s Cancer Institute, and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
• our CRC commercialisation partners: SYNthesis Research and Oncology One.
• all of our CRC participants.

“The KAT6 project alone, which entered clinical trials in 2020, involved over 100 people, across 16 organisations, 10 research laboratories, and 11 different general fields combining science, business, and data management," said Dr Monahan. 

The discovery centred around the KAT6A protein, which is commonly implicated in cancer types with solid tumours. Associate Professor Tim Thomas and Professor Anne Voss at WEHI, brought this protein to the attention of Cancer Therapeutics CRC researchers who then developed potential therapies that have subsequently been licensed through the CRC’s commercial partner, Oncology One. 

This program is now in phase 1 clinical trials for the potential treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic breast, prostate or lung cancer. In addition to the large pharma deals, multiple innovations have been successfully licensed for further pre-clinical development. 

In October 2020, the first human trials started for the Cancer Therapeutics CRC-developed drug AMP945 licensed to Amplia Therapeutics. If the clinical trials prove successful, this important discovery could be used to treat pancreatic cancer. 

"We thank everyone, past and present, who have contributed expertise, creativity, and passion to our organisation and projects,” said Dr Monahan. 

Canthera Discovery is a successful national cancer research organisation, head-quartered in Melbourne, with a primary focus on small molecule drug discovery and development. They partner with Australia’s leading research institutes, universities and biotechnology companies to bridge the gap between basic research and commercial outcomes.