Pharmacy

OncoTrack, an international consortium, managed by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics launched one of Europe's largest academic-industry research projects to develop a novel approach for identification of new markers for colon cancer.

Their prime objective is to establish new methods for systematic next generation oncology biomarker development, with the intention to generate top quality genomic and epigenetic sequence data from clinically well- defined tumours and their metastases. The data acquired from all phases of the project will enable OncoTrack to address important questions about the relationship between tumour genotype and phenotype, the project has collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical companies, such as AstraZeneca, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Pfizer and Roche Diagnostics, whose in-kind contributions to the project are around € 25.8 million.

Dr David Henderson, Principal Scientist – Translational ^Sciences, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, said, "We have assembled a team of clinicians, molecular scientists, bioinformaticians and associated experts, thus creating a Burope-wide network of complementary capabilities extending far beyond the scope of a traditional 'one-on- one' industry-academic collaboration."