A potentially life-saving new Australian drug is on its way to market.

A new class of drugs for treating cancer and certain blood disorders are the subject of one of the largest biotech licensing deals ever to arise from work in Australian labs.

The rights to research and clinical development of PRMT5 inhibitors have been licensed to global healthcare company MSD, known as Merck in North America, in a newly-announced near-$20 million deal.

PRMT5 inhibitors have been developed over the past five years by the Melbourne-based Cancer Therapeutics Cooperative Research Centre (CTx), an international network of medical research institutes, commercial entities and academic partners.

PRMT5 is a protein that controls how genes are switched on or off in cells. High levels of PRMT5 are found in human cancers, including certain blood cancers, and are associated with a poor response to treatment.

Researchers in the CTx partnership have showed that PRMT5 inhibitors may be effective in treating cancer and blood disorders including beta thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.

Associate Professor Street, chief scientific officer of CTx, said the licensing deal with MSD was an important milestone for CTx and the Australian biotech sector.

“An Australian research consortium has been able to take a laboratory discovery through to a point that it can be licensed to a global healthcare company,” he said.

“As well as being an exciting development for healthcare, it has also put CTx, and Australian medical research, on the global biotech landscape.”

The licensing agreement was made by CTx’s commercialisation partner, Cancer Research Technology, and includes an initial payment of $US15 million, future milestone payments and royalties.

CTx and its Australian research partners will receive the majority of the revenue. MSD will also support further research by CTx into new treatments for blood disorders.

More details are available in the video below.