Sanofi and the Curie Institute, through its Curie-Cancer partnership under the Carnot Institute, have established a three-year research collaboration to identify new therapeutic targets for developing treatments for ovarian cancer.

The aim is to revisit the basic biology of cancer through a translational research approach. The Curie Institute has a collection of cryopreserved tumor samples characterized clinically, histologically and biologically. These can be analyzed to identify biological targets relevant to the effective treatment of cancer. Sanofi and Curie-Cancer expect to gain a better understanding of the molecular alterations that characterize many types of ovarian cancer, thereby enabling effective new drugs to be designed.

"We hope this long-term collaboration will ultimately open up perspectives for new therapeutic options for women with this disease," said Debasish Roychowdhury, senior vice president and head of Sanofi oncology.

Using technology platforms developed at the Curie Institute, this program will make it possible to sequence molecules expressed by the tumor genome, compare the sequences of those obtained with non-tumor tissues from the same patients and then clarify and validate the nature of the molecular alterations identified. Sanofi will guide an assessment of the tumor's ability to be inhibited or stimulated by drugs.