A promising new cancer drug, developed by the Melbourne-based Cancer Therapeutics CRC (CTx), has been licensed to pharmaceutical company MSD (known as Merck in the US and Canada) for $730 million.
Designed to inhibit protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), the drug is the result of research by CTx and its partners, including CSIRO, Monash University, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Additional support was provided by the UK-based Wellcome Trust and CTx’s commercialisation partner, Cancer Research Technology (CRT), which was responsible for the licensing agreement.
The PRMT5 is involved in the epigenetic control of genes such as p53 — a gene that protects the cell against cancer-causing mutations and is faulty in nine out of 10 cancers. High levels of PRMT5 are found in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), melanoma and lung and breast cancers. As noted by Dr Tom Peat from CSIRO, the protein’s presence is also linked to poor survival rates.
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