Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

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(Side Box) Case Study: New Zealand’s growing drug discovery expertise. ROADMAPS forSCIENCE 36 Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research
Proacta Therapeutics Proacta Therapeutics is a recent spin-out from the University of Auckland. Their anticancer drug, PR-104, which is designed to treat solid tumours, is currently undergoing human clinical trails at Waikato Hospital in New Zealand, the University of Auckland, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia and several sites in the United States, including UCLA. PR-104 is one of a new generation of pro-drugs. These are drugs that are not activated until they reach the cancer itself, avoiding the side-effects that accompany most cancer drugs. Proacta CEO Paul Cossum says, “PR-104 is only activated once inside the tumour, killing only cancer cells and leaving healthy cells unaffected. This is in stark contrast to current chemotherapies that kill any fast growing cells including gut lining, hair follicles and bone marrow.” PR-104 becomes active in tissue that is starved of oxygen which occurs in tumours as their growth outstrips their blood supply, but not in normal tissue. “We estimate that more than 65% of the 10 million people currently diagnosed with cancer every year have these types of tumours,” Dr Cossum says. PR-104 is the latest drug to be developed by Proacta’s founders Professors Bill Denny and Bill Wilson of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC). It was developed in collaboration with Professors Martin Brown and Amato Giaccia at Stanford University in the US. The ACSRC has a history of success in developing anticancer drugs. In addition to PR-104 it has four in trial with international commercialisation partners and one, Amsacrine, on the market through major multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Investors in New Zealand, Australia and the US were so impressed by the potential of PR-104 and the track record of the company founders that Proacta has raised more than $US47m to get the drug through Phase II trial. Investors include international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies Roche and Genentech as well as venture capital investors. Visit www.proactatherapeutics.com and www.health.auckland.ac.nz/cancer ROADMAPS forSCIENCE Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research 37
Page 3 and 4: ROADMAPS forSCIENCE A GUIDE FOR NEW
Page 5 and 6: Summary Biotechnology research has
Page 7 and 8: Directions : ECONOMIC 1 The governm
Page 9 and 10: 1.2 Scope of this Roadmap Since 200
Page 11 and 12: The biotechnology industry has grow
Page 13 and 14: 2.3 Future outlook 15 • cleaner,
Page 15 and 16: 2.6 Biotechnology and society No te
Page 17 and 18: The perception that this is a “su
Page 19 and 20: Biomedicine is the major focus for
Page 21 and 22: 3.4 A unique environment New Zealan
Page 23 and 24: 4 The strategic landscape Section s
Page 25 and 26: Food and Beverage Taskforce 50 The
Page 27 and 28: 4.2 The biotechnology regulatory en
Page 29 and 30: 5 Biotechnology Research in New Zea
Page 31 and 32: 5.2 Who is allocating biotechnology
Page 33 and 34: Using these horizon categories, FRS
Page 35 and 36: The core public sector biotechnolog
Page 37: Current investment levels and trend
Page 41 and 42: Figure 10 Animal biotechnology rese
Page 43 and 44: Smart Sheep Science New Zealand is
Page 45 and 46: Issues or gaps The impact of biotec
Page 47 and 48: (Side Box) Case Study: ‘Nature Id
Page 49 and 50: National Centre for Advanced Bio-pr
Page 51 and 52: 6 Directions for Biotechnology Rese
Page 53 and 54: Table 5 provides a summary of the s
Page 55 and 56: Short-term actions: Research fundin
Page 57 and 58: Short term actions: MoRST and New Z
Page 59 and 60: 6.2.2 Directions: Environmental Dir
Page 61 and 62: 6.2.3 Directions: Research to suppo
Page 63 and 64: Direction 11 Greater focus on colla
Page 65 and 66: Annex 1 References ABT Associates (
Page 67 and 68: Annex 2 Continuum of public researc
Page 69 and 70: Outcome-focused (Targeted Research)
Page 71 and 72: Plant improvement Production of new
Page 73 and 74: Biodiversity, Ecology & Evolution I
Page 75 and 76: Government funded research by each

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