Curie-Cancer and Sanofi cooperate in research on ovarian cancer

French drug major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) and the Curie Institute, through its Curie-Cancer partnership under the Institut Carnot label, have established a three-year research collaboration to identify new therapeutic targets for the development of treatments for ovarian cancer. Financial terms of the accord were not disclosed.

The aim of the collaboration is to revisit the basic biology of this type of cancer through a translational research approach. The Institut Curie has a large collection of cryopreserved tumor samples that are well characterized clinically, histologically and biologically. These can be analyzed to identify biological targets relevant to the effective treatment of certain types of cancer. Through this collaboration, Sanofi and Curie-Cancer expect to gain a better understanding of the molecular alterations that characterize many types of ovarian cancer, thereby enabling effective new drugs to be designed.

"We hope this type of long-term collaboration will ultimately open up perspectives for new therapeutic options for women with this disease. It will combine the accumulated knowledge on ovarian cancer gathered over many years by oncologists and biologists at the Institut Curie with the expertise of researchers from Sanofi's research and product development teams," said Debasish Roychowdhury, senior vice president and head of Sanofi Oncology, adding: "Established under the Aviesan partnership, this research agreement is a good example of translational research involving French scientific excellence."