Cancer Research UK, its commercial arm Cancer Research Technology (CRT) and Chinese life science company HitGen have entered into a license agreement to develop a novel class of drugs against lung cancer.

Scientists at the charity's Drug Discovery Unit at The University of Manchester will work on new leads against a therapeutic target in lung cancer that were identified using HitGen's technology platform. The “unique” platform screens HitGen’s vast DNA-encoded libraries that contain more than six billion drug-like molecules.

The license is the first taken through the ongoing collaboration between CRT, Cancer Research UK's Manchester Institute Drug Discovery Group and HitGen, which are eligible for milestone payments as the project progresses.

“As part of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, we're determined to get new lung cancer treatments to patients quicker. Identifying this promising candidate drug offers the potential to help boost survival from this devastating disease,” said Donald Ogilvie, head of drug discovery at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute at The University of Manchester.

Last September, HitGen agreed a multi-target global collaboration with Janssen Biotech to discover potential new therapies that are of strategic interest to the US biotech, particularly in the areas of oncology and metabolics. HitGen is providing biology, chemistry and screening to support Janssen’s discovery efforts.