2017 Annual Report

The Therapeutics Group, at The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research, is comprised of 15 dedicated scientists working together to bring new drugs from discovery to the patient. Dr. Tak Mak’s team is among a handful of groups to ever bring a drug to clinical trial from an academic cancer research centre. Thanks to a $10.5 million philanthropic gift in 2015 to support the core functioning of the team, the Therapeutics Group has brought two first-in-class drugs, from the lab to clinical trial — a feat unmatched by any comparable group in the world. Our clinical stage drugs inhibit critical enzymes, PLK4 and TTK, that are essential for cancer cells Therapeutics Group Using Philanthropy to take Discoveries from the Lab to the Clinic to divide and multiply. The PLK4 inhibitor has now completed Phase 1 trials and has progressed to multiple trials in different cancers including breast, prostate, and leukemias and the TTK inhibitor is in Phase 1. The Therapeutics Group is now developing its first drug in the area of immune-oncology: an inhibitor of HPK1, an enzyme that halts activation of T cells. T cells are a part of the immune system needed to fight cancer within the body. The novel, first-in-class inhibitor of HPK1 developed by the Therapeutics Group has shown significant promise in pre-clinical studies, and is expected to enter human clinical trials in 2018. Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline PRE-CLINICAL DISCOVERY PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 DRUG APPROVAL HPK1 TARGET TTK TARGET PLK4 TARGET APPROVAL FOR TRIAL 12 | 2017 Report to Our Donors TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP