MD Anderson5 Feb 2026 15:26
It’s important to realise how important the MD Anderson Cancer Centre is, being the leading cancer centre in the world as they have extensive and formal discussions with all the major pharmaceutical companies. These interactions go far beyond simple clinical trial participation and are often structured as Strategic Alliances.
MD Anderson is actually a pioneer in how academic medical centers collaborate with the "Big Pharma" industry. Rather than just acting as a site to test a drug, they often engage in deep, multi-year partnerships to co-develop therapies.
MD Anderson's Strategic Industry Ventures office manages these high-level relationships. Their discussions typically cover:
Strategic Alliances: Long-term agreements (often 5+ years) where MD Anderson and a pharma company agree to share data, research platforms, and clinical expertise to move a drug from the lab to the clinic and beyond.
Joint Ventures: In some cases, they form entirely new companies with industry partners to commercialise specific technologies, such as their work with National Resilience to create CTMC (Cell Therapy Manufacturing Centre).
Translational Research: Discussions often focus on "reverse translation," where MD Anderson uses its vast patient data to help pharmaceutical companies understand why a drug worked in some patients but not others.
MD Anderson has high-profile alliances with all of the world's top twenty pharmaceutical and biotech firms, so regardless of Vlad’s direct discussions with multiple pharmas and other organisations, I feel sure that all relevant companies will be very aware of Hemogenyx and their clinical progress.
So in short, a partner could literally come from nowhere at any time and as others have eluded to, the more patients that are treated and the longer they remain alive it’s a simple fact that the more valuable the product becomes. Therein lies the dilemma for pharma. Do they wait for more data and pay more, which is usually what the larger pharmaceutical companies do, or do they take on more risk and move early, which is typically what thre mid range pharmaceutical companies do. And if one bids..what will the others do?
Interesting times ahead.