EMD Serono Links With M.D. Anderson

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has inked another deal with a big drug company geared at bringing drugs out of the lab and to patients more efficiently. The three-year pact with EMD Serono, the U.S. arm of Merck Serono, was developed to design better clinical trials for EMD’s early-stage oncology drug candidates. The partners say the deal will help ensure biomarkers are identified during the clinical development of cancer drugs. M.D. Anderson has collaborated for years with AstraZeneca to accelerate cancer research; last year, the two expanded their agreement to better understand neuropathic pain caused by chemotherapy. The cancer center also has a five-year pact with GlaxoSmithKline to develop therapeutic, diagnostic, and imaging products for oncology.