Start of Oncode Accelerator

Patients at the center of innovative cancer drug development

08-09-2023

Cancer is one of the most significant health challenges of our time. It remains a challenge to provide every cancer patient with the right treatment. Oncode Accelerator aims to change this by innovating the way we develop cancer treatments, ensuring the patient is at the heart of the process. Thanks to funding from the National Growth Fund, more than 30 public and private partners start this new way of working today.

To discover, develop, and bring a new drug to the market is a lengthy, high-risk, and expensive process. Furthermore, it often turns out that a new treatment is only effective in a subset of the patient population it was developed for. Oncode Accelerator aims to address this by innovating the preclinical phase of therapy development. Friso Smit, co-executive director of Oncode Accelerator, says: "In this early phase of development, we want to put the patient at the center. We do this through three innovation platforms: well-defined patient cohorts, organoid models derived from patients, and predictive models based on artificial intelligence."

Oncode Accelerator

By connecting more than 30 public and private organisations, Oncode Accelerator consolidates existing expertise in the Netherlands within the field of four types of cancer therapies: small molecules, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and therapeutic vaccines. "By intertwining these three innovation platforms within this existing infrastructure, we believe we can predict much earlier and more accurately which patient will benefit from a new treatment," says Prof. Dr. Miriam Koopman, internist-oncologist at UMC Utrecht. She leads the platform focused on defining patient cohorts accurately. "This is crucial since we, as practitioners, often aren't sure if a prescribed treatment will be effective for a specific patient." By linking the preclinical development process with clinical practice, Oncode Accelerator increases the likelihood that candidate drugs prove their worth in large-scale clinical trials.

Impact on patients and the economy

The innovations Oncode Accelerator introduces aim to lead to better outcomes for patients. "Through demonstration projects, candidate drugs are developed based on our innovative approach," Friso Smit explains. "The goal is twofold: to show that we can develop therapies more efficiently and, at the same time, deliver tangible results for patients." Additionally, it is expected that Oncode Accelerator will have a significant economical impact. Fred Dom, CEO of Saber Bio and chairman of the Oncode Accelerator Supervisory Board, concludes: "With Oncode Accelerator, we have a unique opportunity to get innovative cancer treatments to the patient faster, shortening the time to market. The resources made available to realize this ambition make the Netherlands very attractive for (inter)national investors and to attract top talent.”

Building on the strong foundation of Oncode Institute

Oncode Institute, along with other organizations, took the initiative to establish Oncode Accelerator, building on Oncode Institute's reputation as an effective national collaboration in cancer research and valorization. Oncode Institute unites over 800 top cancer researchers from academic and medical institutions in the Netherlands to stimulate breakthrough innovations in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Oncode Accelerator builds on this scientific foundation to create an impact for cancer patients. Together, the two initiatives represent the first significant steps towards discovering and developing new therapeutic solutions for cancer.

The Netherlands Cancer Institute is the coordinator of the Cell & Gene Therapy component led by Inge Jedema, Bastiaan Nuijen and John Haanen. The other components include researchers Neeltje Steeghs, Lodewyk Wessels, Anastassis Perrakis, Roderick Beijersbergen and Els Hermans.

Cell therapy

One of the promising types of advanced therapies that will be developed further and faster through Oncode-Accelerator is cell and gene therapy. This involves using your own immune cells as "living medicine. John Haanen is one of the two leaders of this part of Oncode-Accelerator. At the NKI, for example, he works on immunotherapies in which living T cells, sometimes equipped with a new recognition structure via genetic modification, are deployed against solid tumors.

Haanen: 'These are ingenious and very promising therapies. One of the big challenges we now face in making cell therapy more effective in treating solid tumors is to ensure that the T cells given to the patient as a "live drug" are more effective and will survive longer in a tumor's hostile microenvironment. That means, for example, that we have to start teaching T cells to make their own protective compounds to arm themselves against all the evasion and attack mechanisms of the tumor cells.

Within Oncode-Accelerator, the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek will mainly expand its own capacity and join forces with the other partners in the field of innovation and further development of cell and gene therapy strategies: more clean rooms for generating cell therapy products and more capacity to make therapeutic vaccines. Inge Jedema, Head of Translational Cell Therapy: "the financial contribution from the National Growth Fund and the collaboration within Oncode Accelerator give the AVL the opportunity to further expand the infrastructure for drug research and production and to work through technological innovation to develop a new generation of drugs for patients with cancer."

About Oncode Accelerator

Oncode Accelerator is a unique national collaboration coordinated by six partners: Leiden University, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology, Utrecht University Medical Center and Oncode Accelerator Foundation. Oncode Accelerator enhances and accelerates the development of new cancer therapies by involving the patient earlier in the process. The program is a joint effort of more than 30 public and private partners from the oncology ecosystem. Oncode Accelerator is co-financed by the National Growth Fund and works together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.