Childhood cancer affects 300,000 new children and teenagers each year. Surprisingly, from up to 120 approved cancer drugs, around 30 have been used off label in children, 15 have pediatric use information in their labeling and only 4 treatments designed specifically for pediatric cancer have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
One of the greatest obstacles to developing new treatments is what researchers call the “Valley of Death”, the transition between early discoveries and clinical development or, in other words, the process to turn science findings into potential treatments. The initial research phase is normally funded by public and non-profit entities, whereas the late stage clinical phase is mainly funded by the private sector. In childhood cancer, the clinical development of specific new agents is under-funded because the pharmaceutical industry is mainly focusing on more prevalent and profitable adult oncology indications.
Thankfully, some non-profit organizations are seeing the need to go beyond funding only early stage academic research and are making remarkable and innovative changes in their investment strategy. This is the case for the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), who we want to thank again for their unconditional support to Oncoheroes Biosciences by announcing their second investment to our company.
NFCR is a national charity for cancer research co-founded by Nobel Laureate Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi in 1973. In its 46-year history, NFCR has provided more than $380 million in funding to cancer research and public prevention education.
Two years ago, Oncoheroes received funding support from NFCR which allowed us to set up our discovery lab and launch our first project for the development of a new therapy for medulloblastoma patients (more info). Thanks to NFCR’s initial support, Oncoheroes has made tremendous progress not only on the discovery project but also convincing others to invest in our project.
Now, NFCR is taking an additional step, supporting us through a new funding paradigm which it has recently launched called the AIM-HI Accelerator Fund. AIM-HI funds translational research focusing on startups that have commercial potential at the early stage of their cancer therapeutic discovery activities. This new investment will contribute to the clinical development of volasertib, the first asset that Oncoheroes has in-licensed from Boehringer Ingelheim.
Moreover, NFCR has been helping Oncoheroes obtain further exposure to the world’s cancer research, biopharmaceutical and investment communities, such as through our participation in the 2019 China BioMed Innovation and Investment Conference, held September 21-23, 2019.
Ambitious goals will only be achieved by working united. Thanks, NFCR, for believing in our unprecedented effort for childhood cancer drug development. Together, we will make a difference.
