LifeArc is a British
life science medical research charity. It was established in 2000 as MRC Technology to
translate
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
the work of
UK Medical Research Council (MRC) research scientists.
Today, LifeArc provides
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
identification, protection and commercialisation, technology development, diagnostic development, early stage
drug discovery
In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered.
Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...
and
antibody humanization services for the MRC, academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical organisations and charities, aiming to move promising medical research forward into viable and accessible patient treatments. Profits from LifeArc's activities are reinvested into further research.
LifeArc uses funds from royalty payments to provide grants into rare disease research and allocates seed funding to UK companies.
History
LifeArc started as the Medical Research Council Liaison Office in 1984, and in 1986 the MRC Collaborative Centre, a laboratory-based technology transfer function, was founded. In 1993, the Liaison Office became MRC's Technology Transfer Group, responsible for office based patenting and licensing.
The organisation was set up as a charity and a company limited by guarantee in 2000 to incorporate patenting, licensing and research functions.
O
15 June 2017it officially became LifeArc.
Activities
LifeArc humanised a number of antibodies on behalf of other organisations. Four of these,
Tysabri (Biogen Idec/Elan),
Actemra (Hoffmann-La Roche/Chugai),
Entyvio (Millenium Pharma/Takeda) and
Keytruda (Merck/MSD), are licensed drugs.
In 2010, LifeArc signed a deal with the drug company
AstraZeneca to share chemical compounds to help identify potential treatments for serious diseases.
LifeArc is a member of a Global Drug Discovery Alliance along with
the Centre for Drug Research and Development,
the Scripps Research Institute
Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...
, Cancer Research Technology, the Lead Discovery Centre and the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery, dedicated to translating health research into new medicines and working together to improve the conversion of global early-stage research into much-needed new therapies.
Through its earnings from licensing agreements, LifeArc provides funding for academic research and early-stage medical research.
Dementia Consortiumwas launched in December 2013 - a unique £3m drug discovery collaboration betwee
Alzheimer's Research UK LifeArc and pharmaceutical companie
Eisaian
Lilly
In March 2019, LifeArc joined with
Cancer Research UK and
Ono Pharma to progress new immunotherapy drug targets for cancer.
In May 2019, LifeArc announced it had sold part of its royalty rights for Keytruda to a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for US$1.297 billion, making it one of the biggest UK medical charities by size of investment.
In 2021, LifeArc launched a new strategy and a commitment to invest up to £1.3 billion by 2030 in life science research. At the same time, the charity announced a new approach for treating Alzheimer's disease, a result of a partnership with the Universities of Leicester and Göttingen.
Key achievements
References
External links
LifeArc's website
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Technology transfer
Companies based in the London Borough of Camden
Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom
Charities based in London