Onyx Pharmaceuticals is teaming up with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to form the Oncology Innovation Alliance (OIA), a public-private partnership focusing on the discovery and development of novel therapies and their potential role in treating various types of hematologic cancers and solid tumors.
The alliance’s goal, the organizations say, is to transform cancer care by harnessing the expertise in fundamental science and medicine at both UCSF and Onyx to address the full continuum of that care to identify opportunities to improve the patient experience and outcomes. The partnership will focus on drug discovery and development, and reportedly seeks to advance the broader scope of patient care while contributing to the biological understanding of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, discovering novel drug targets, identifying potential biomarkers to support patient selection, and implementing innovative clinical development approaches.
“UCSF and Onyx share a vision of transforming care for patients with cancer, so we can precisely diagnose, treat, and possibly even prevent cancer from occurring,” said Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and provost at UCSF. “Our goal is to create an umbrella partnership that enables us to work together to better understand the cascade of events within a cell that leads to disease, and find innovative ways to use that knowledge to diagnose and treat patients far more precisely than we can today.”
A joint steering committee comprised of representatives from Onyx and UCSF will provide oversight of the alliance. The term of the agreement extends for three years.
Last June, Onyx also forged a nonexclusive research alliance with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with the aim of further contributing to the biological understanding and clinical profile of Onyx’ carfilzomib and oprozomib in myeloma and lymphoma.