UK-based Achilles Therapeutics plc has announced a landmark deal worth USD 12 billion with AstraZeneca (AZ, NASDAQ: AZN), which involves the transfer of the UK company’s commercial license of data and samples from the TRACERx Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) study.
TRACERx Study: A Pioneering Effort in Tumor Evolution Research
The TRACERx study (TRAcking Cancer Evolution through therapy (Rx)) is led by Professor Charles Swanton at University College London (UCL), UK, and stands as one of the largest tumor evolution studies to date. It has generated deep sequencing multi-region and multi-time-point genetic data from over 3,200 tumor samples derived from more than 800 lung cancer patients.
Details of the Agreement and Material Acquisition Platform (MAP)
As part of the agreement, AstraZeneca will assume sponsorship of Achilles’ Material Acquisition Platform (MAP). MAP is a proprietary network that has collected donor tumor tissue and blood from nearly 300 cancer patients undergoing standard-of-care cancer surgery across a range of solid tumor types, including lung, melanoma, head and neck, renal, bladder, and breast. AstraZeneca will receive the tumor samples and data that have been gathered thus far, significantly enhancing its access to valuable clinical resources.
