Accanito Therapeutics

Most oncology programmes are built around a single tumour type, which means a drug that works has to be rediscovered for the next disease. Accanito is developing a therapy with a mechanism of action it believes applies across multiple cancers, and is taking it forward with pharmaceutical partners rather than alone.

Cancer drug development is organised by tumour type, for good regulatory reasons and at considerable cost: the same underlying biology gets attacked separately in a dozen indications, each with its own trial, its own timeline and its own bill. A mechanism that generalises is therefore worth far more than a single approval, and correspondingly harder to prove.

Accanito is pursuing exactly that shape of bet, with a lead programme and a combination therapy behind it, and a licensing route that puts the trials in the hands of partners with the capital to run them. For a company at this stage the honest signals are the pipeline and who is willing to sign something, both of which are on the record.