With an initial investment of £28 million in resources and funding, LifeArc and Cancer Research UK have launched a new initiative to develop medicines exclusively for children’s and young people’s cancers.

C-Further will bring together researchers, clinicians, scientists and industry to provide support, finance and expertise.

Childhood cancers often have a different biology than those in adults, yet targeted treatment options are mostly based on adult therapies. In addition, small patient populations make clinical trials difficult and reduce incentives for investment.

The current pipeline of potential new medicines being developed for childhood cancers is sparse. Only two drugs were approved exclusively for children and young people with cancer by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and five by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2007 to 2022. In contrast, 14 new cancer medicines for adults received FDA approval in 2023 alone.

Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer of Cancer Research Horizons, commented: “The discovery and development of new therapeutics specifically for childhood cancers simply hasn’t been commercially viable – at least, by following the same pathways to market as adult cancer treatment. Rising to the challenge of childhood cancer requires a fundamental change in the way children and young people’s cancer drugs are discovered, developed and brought to market.”

Support for researchers

Expressions of interest are invited from researchers with an asset that has novel therapeutic potential in paediatric oncology across diverse modalities (small molecule, antibody-based, cell therapy and others).

“C-Further is a completely new way of working with the research community,” said David Jenkinson, Head of Childhood Cancer at LifeArc. “Through the consortium, we will offer researchers with promising therapeutic targets a package of support, that could include funding, access to cutting-edge drug discovery facilities, expert support and comprehensive resources to help projects to progress from the lab bench to patients.”

Diana Spencer, Senior Digital Content Editor, DDW