Expression of Interest (EOI) Roundup

Thank you to all those involved in submitting an EOI to our recent call we recived a total of 41 EOIs. The call opened on 11 October, well attended webinars were held on 3 November and the call closed 30 November. The ECMC Combinations Alliance and the NIHR CRN Industry Alliance are collaborating to support access to multiple molecules from our partners, including exciting agents from AstraZeneca and Plexxikon. We invited researchers from both the ECMC and NIHR networks to submit novel proposals involving one or more of the novel agents with standard of care chemotherapy and or radiotherapy and or another novel drug.

The next steps will be as follows;

·              Triage 1 - EOI feedback provided before Christmas with selected EOIs progressing to Triage 2

·              Triage 2 - Face-to-face workshop (London)- 8 February 2018

·              Triage 2 feedback – provided mid-February 2018

·              EOIs of interest confirmed post workshop will be invited to submit to Cancer Research UK’s (CRUK) Clinical Research Committee (CRC)

§   CRC submission -  May 2018

§   CRC meeting -  November 2018

·              Trial open expectation - within 12 months of CRUK’s CRC approval

Timely delivery of the trials that develop from this process is critical to the success of the model itself. This will support attracting more industrial partners with novel agents to join and offer for combination via the network. Early engagement with your key collaborators including your R&D, and Clinical Trail Unit teams is encouraged.

Trials under the Combinations Alliance model will be academically sponsored and establish a contract agreement (CTAg) directly with the industry partner(s). The industry partner support will include the following which may be supplemented by CRUK CRC grant funding (applied for by the academic sponsor as required);

·         A set-up fee

·         Per patient fee

·         Packaged, labelled and shipped drug

·         Milestone payments

Our EOI calls are bi-annual and feed into CRUK’s CRC meeting schedule. If you would like to understand more about the process or join the Combinations Alliance distribution list please contact; combinationsalliance@cancer.org.uk