Inaugural North of England cancer conference to be hosted in Alderley Park

The inaugural conference from Bionow, exploring the strengths in the discovery, development and manufacture of cancer medicines in the North of England, is to be hosted at Alderley Park later on this month (27 February).

This one-day event, billed as Accelerating Cancer Drug Development — From Target to Patients, will highlight industry, academic and clinical contributions made by the region whilst showcasing key activities, infrastructure and the joined up translational environment which exists in the North.

Included in the programme will be two keynote speeches, to be given by Professor Rob Bristow — an expert on prostate cancer who recently became the director of the University of Manchester’s Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC) — and Dr Susan Galbraith — vice president of oncology at AstraZeneca, which developed a breakthrough lung cancer drug Tagrisso.

Furthermore, experts from other businesses and academia, such as ApconiX, Concept Life Sciences, Redx Pharma, Quay Pharma, NewGene, The Medicines Discovery Catapult, the University of Sheffield and The Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (CRUKMI), will be involved in the conference programme.

“There’s a vast amount of effort being devoted the world over to winning the battle against cancer — and we are making progress,” commented Dr Chris Doherty, managing director of Alderley Park. “Survival rates in the UK have doubled over the past 40 years and for a number of cancers, including breast and skin cancer, more than eight out of 10 people will beat the disease. Research has led to better treatments, new drugs, more accurate tests, earlier diagnosis and screening programmes. The North of England is very much involved in this global effort and we believe this new conference will showcase the contributions being made by scientists here. A number of life-saving cancer drugs have been developed at Alderley Park over the years and now there’s a new generation of companies and organisations focused on beating the disease.”

“Over the last decade or more Manchester has become an important global centre of cancer research, with valuable breakthroughs also being made in Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool and elsewhere across the North,” added Geoff Davison, CEO of Bionow. “The cancer research and development community works well together here and we welcome the opportunity to draw together the important strands of work in areas such as drug development, clinical trials, personalised medicine new target identification and chemistry and link this thought manufacturing to patients.”

The event will be held at the Alderley Park Conference Centre on 27 February.