Servier and French TechBio company Cure51 have announced they will launch a research partnership to identify new therapeutic targets for glioblastoma (GBM).
The collaboration will use Cure51’s global database of exceptional cancer survivors and computational discovery platform alongside Servier’s R&D capabilities to uncover biological mechanisms that could lead to new treatments for glioblastoma.
Studying glioblastoma survivors could reveal new therapeutic targets
Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive primary malignant brain tumour in adults.
The disease is highly invasive and heterogeneous, while the blood-brain barrier presents a significant challenge for drug delivery.
Median survival is generally just 12–18 months, highlighting the need for new therapeutic approaches.
However, a small proportion of patients survive for more than five years.
Cure51 systematically identifies these exceptional survivors through a network of more than 150 oncology centres across 38 countries, using clinical and molecular data to investigate the biological factors associated with long-term survival.
The company’s approach focuses on studying these “outliers” rather than solely on the mechanisms driving disease progression.
Its computational modelling platform is designed to identify and validate biological mechanisms that could provide new targets for drug discovery.
Under the partnership, Cure51 will disclose priority targets preselected to address unmet medical needs in a patient population defined by Servier.
Target selection will also consider factors including medication suitability and target class.
The companies will then have the opportunity to further explore and validate the identified targets following the initial research phase.
The partnership represents Cure51’s first research collaboration with a pharmaceutical company. For Servier, the programme builds on its focus on rare oncology and precision medicine, including the development of treatments for brain tumours.
“We are proud to be the pioneering pharmaceutical partner for Cure51. This collaboration underscores Servier’s long-standing commitment and proven scientific expertise in rare oncology,” said Claude Bertrand, Executive Vice-President, Research & Development, Servier.
By combining Cure51’s unique insights derived from exceptional glioblastoma survivors with our deep R&D capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to translate groundbreaking biological mechanisms into potential new therapies for patients with few or no treatment options.
Cure51 CEO and co-founder Nicolas Wolikow added that the company’s survivor-focused approach could help reveal targets that conventional cancer research strategies overlook.
Under the new agreement, Cure51 is eligible to receive up to €442m per target in potential milestone payments.
