A new drug for ovarian cancer, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge and AstraZeneca, has today become the first of new class of drugs, known as PARP-inhibitors, to be granted approval anywhere in the world. The drug, Lynparza, has been granted Marketing Authorisation from the European Commission.
The research that led to the development of the drug began in the mid-1990s in the lab of Professor Steve Jackson at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. It led to the launch of a university spinout company, KuDOS, which was acquired by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in early 2006.
“Lynparza is an innovative new anti-cancer medicine that works in a different way to previously-marketed drugs. Unlike traditional anti-cancer drugs, it makes the cancer cells – not the normal cells of the patient – sick. Today’s development should pave the way for further therapies based on this approach.”
The drug works by exploiting inherent weaknesses in the mechanism by which DNA is repaired in certain cancer cells, allowing Lynparza to kill cancer cells but not the patient’s healthy cells. Consequently, the drug has fewer side effects than traditional cancer treatments such as radiotherapy or chemotherapies.
