13 August 2019 - - German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have forged a new multi-year partnership to conduct collaborative research to rapidly advance therapies for various types of cancers, including gastrointestinal and lung cancers, the principals said.

The establishment of a joint Virtual Research and Development Center will enable effective data sharing and analysis between the organizations.

The partnership is built on a flexible framework, allowing for projects to enter at different stages (research, development and/or clinical stage) over several years.

It further combines the unique patient-driven drug-development capabilities of MD Anderson's Therapeutics Discovery division with the innovative pipeline of novel medicines from Boehringer Ingelheim.

MD Anderson's Therapeutics Discovery division is a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers focused on advancing the next generation of cancer therapies.

As part of the division, the TRACTION (Translational Research to Advance Therapeutics and Innovation in Oncology) platform conducts cutting-edge translational research to better understand how new medicines work and which patients will see most benefit.

The Virtual Research and Development Center will focus on the development of potential new treatments including KRAS inhibition concepts, as mutations in the KRAS gene are common in various cancers, specifically in certain types of lung and gastrointestinal cancers; and a TRAILR2 agonistic antibody, with the potential to selectively induce cancer cell death (apoptosis).

More than 4.1m people die from gastrointestinal and lung cancers every year worldwide1, indicating an urgent need for new treatment approaches.

Gastrointestinal cancers represent a heterogeneous complex array of diseases, and include oesophageal (throat), gastric (stomach), liver, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers.

In 2018, lung cancer caused more than 1.7m deaths.

There are two main types of lung cancer: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).