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I became a doctor for two reasons: a deep curiosity to understand human biology and a desire to improve outcomes for patients. I built my career as a Clinical Oncologist, where I applied these motivations to understanding cancer biology and ways to improve cancer treatment, and then made the move to industry where I felt I could make an even bigger impact. Now, as Executive Vice President of Oncology Haematology R&D at AstraZeneca, I’m proud to lead a team of brilliant people working tirelessly to pursue our bold ambition: to one day eliminate cancer as a cause of death.
Our Oncology R&D strategy to support this ambition and transform outcomes for cancer patients is formed of three core components:
Through persistent innovation – both internally generated and with external partners and collaborators – I am proud that we have built one of the most diverse oncology portfolios in the industry. We are balancing a focus on advancing our industry-leading pipeline with the active life-cycle management of our existing assets, to deliver life-changing medicines to patients living with cancer.
Attacking cancer from multiple angles
Learn more about our Oncology R&D strategy in this video:
The body has remarkably complex, innate systems to detect and respond to threats. But when it comes to cancer, malignant cells can evolve to develop ways to overcome these defences and avoid detection. We are developing sophisticated platforms with the aim of activating the immune system to more effectively find and eliminate cancer cells as well as mechanisms that kill cancer cells directly.
Our approaches to meet our aim of activating the immune system include immune checkpoint inhibitors to improve T-cell priming and overcome exhaustion, immune cell engagers that create a synthetic immune synapse between T-cells and tumour cells, and cell therapy to engineer and armour T-cells to home in on cancer cells while protecting them from the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment.
When it comes to killing cancer cells directly, we are exploring targeted therapies, such as antibody drug conjugates and radioconjugates, which deliver chemotherapy agents and radioactive payloads directly to cancer cells, while also developing assets that target cancer cells’ tumour drivers and resistance mechanisms, DNA damage responses and characteristic epigenetic markers.
The diversity of our pipeline is intentional. The real power lies in the potential to combine approaches to simultaneously target different aspects of cancer’s biology and cut off routes to treatment resistance. Our combination strategy involves transitioning from an asset-focused to a regimen-focused portfolio, where medicines are designed to complement each other and drive better outcomes for patients.
Treating cancer earlier and smarter
Crucial to effective cancer treatment is understanding an individual cancer’s characteristics and drivers as early as possible. Diagnosing cancer and administering targeted treatment while it is still at an early stage can make a huge difference to patient outcomes. We are exploring a range of novel biomarkers that offer early insight into which treatments are most likely to benefit an individual, while also creating opportunities to introduce therapies earlier in the treatment pathway.
When cancer cells die, circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is released into the bloodstream and can be used to detect and guide the treatment of cancer. The ability to detect changes in cancer using a simple blood test, before visible signs emerge, has the potential to be transformative for the way we design, monitor and manage cancer treatments.
We are also using multimodal biomarkers – combining molecular, genetic and imaging data using advanced analytical techniques to create AI-based foundational models to provide a more sophisticated picture of a tumour. These models can simplify treatment decision-making by providing a single, interpretable output for physicians to act upon.
Leading with transformational technologies
Data and AI
With the right data at our fingertips, we have the potential to transform cancer drug discovery and development. We have embedded data and AI across our Oncology R&D activities to help identify new targets, inform clinical trial recruitment and predict molecules with the best chance of clinical success. We’re also using multimodal foundation models, which can analyse vast quantities of multi-source data to accelerate our R&D. These capabilities have the potential to transform the landscape of cancer diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.
Computational pathology
Computational pathology allows us to analyse tissue sections with much greater precision than traditional pathology approaches, giving a more comprehensive picture of a tumour and its microenvironment. Quantitative Continuous Scoring (QCS) is our novel, fully automated computational pathology solution that not only looks for the presence or absence of a biomarker but can also be used to measure its expression level and localisation within cells. We are currently pioneering the use of QCS to help inform patient selection within our antibody drug conjugate clinical trials, with the future aim to expand across other modalities and integrate multiple biomarkers to form sophisticated multiplex models.
Digital health
The digital capabilities we are embedding across Oncology R&D are essential to create a seamless connection between people and data. This powers our end-to-end approach to innovation and our overarching ambition to reimagine how healthcare is delivered to improve patients’ treatment journeys.
With Evinova, our global health-tech business, we’re making great progress towards our goal of improving diagnosis at earlier stages, integrating proactive digital monitoring to better measure outcomes and inform the development of more precise treatments. We continue to research, create and deliver digital health solutions that are science-based and human experience-driven.
Continuing to drive momentum in Oncology R&D
I’m incredibly proud of the breadth and depth of our R&D in oncology. The real potential lies in bringing all the elements of our strategy together. We’ve already made significant progress and I’m confident we have the expertise, determination and strategic approach to keep our pioneering science moving forwards, to potentially transform outcomes and ultimately advance towards our ambition of one day eliminating cancer as a cause of death.
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