In order for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to operate effectively as a cancer research charity, it is necessary for CRUK to enter into partnerships with industry (including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies). As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), when CRUK enters into research collaborations with industry it seeks to follow the principles set out here (‘An Essential Partnership: A guide for charities working with industry’), including:
(a) integrity: both parties should act honestly and with integrity at all times
(b) independence: charities should maintain their independence from the company concerned
(c) transparency: charities should be entirely open about their collaborations with industry.
The AMRC guidance recognises that confidentiality provisions are commonly included in research partnership agreements which will constrain the amount of information that medical research charities can make available publicly. The guidance also states that “charities should report their research collaborations and the financial contributions received from industry in their annual reports and accounts”. CRUK does include this information in its annual report and accounts. Additional information is provided on this page concerning the research and other partnerships which CRUK forms with industry.
One example of partnerships with industry which are important to CRUK in delivering benefits to cancer patients is the work that CRUK does to organise and sponsor clinical trials for novel drugs and other agents. These drugs and agents are often provided by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies under contractual arrangements which are likely to provide CRUK with a share of the commercial success of the drug or agent that is tested.
The most common types of research partnership that CRUK will form with industry are:
(a) agreements under which a commercial partner will obtain access to the results of CRUK funded research and will develop for patient benefit new drugs or other technologies and which will include a requirement that the partner makes certain payments to CRUK
(b) agreements under which a commercial partner will fund the cost of cancer research at a UK university or other academic research institution.
To the extent that CRUK receives income from these and other research partnerships, we have sought to include as comprehensively as we can the aggregate sums received. As explained below, additional sums may have been received by universities or other academic research institutions which information is not reported on this page and may be available from those organisations.
Revenue generated through research partnerships with industry provides valuable support for future investment in research. CRUK aims to fairly balance the early-stage nature of its research and the significant industry investment needed to bring new therapeutics and other technologies to market so that they can provide tangible benefits to patients. In relation to such partnerships, CRUK staff strive to understand the potential benefit to both industry and patients, negotiate terms that appropriately reflect the value of the technology, and in so doing, secure a fair return for CRUK.
In entering into research collaborations, CRUK will often operate through its wholly owned subsidiary company, Cancer Research Technology Limited, trading as Cancer Research Horizons. The financial results achieved by this subsidiary company are reflected in CRUK’s annual report and accounts (and also in the statutory accounts filed at Companies House) which are publicly available. Read these reports on Companies House.
The income received by CRUK (and Cancer Research Technology Limited, trading as Cancer Research Horizons) from such research partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is set out below.
FY 20/21 | £19,109,018.27 |
FY 21/22 | £9,502,426.92 |
FY 22/23 | £13,796,887.04 |
FY 23/24 | £18,454,999.52 |
FY 24/25 | £10,479,357.31 |
These came from interactions with 40 different pharma and 119 biotech companies including but not limited to:
AstraZeneca
Carrick Therapeutics
GlaxoSmithKline
Hoffmann-La Roche
Merck KGaA
Ono Pharmaceutical
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
In order for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to be able to invest the very substantial sums required to develop technologies which have the potential to benefit patients they typically require that details (including financial information) of research partnership agreements are kept confidential. It is therefore not possible to disclose the detailed content of these agreements.
In many cases, the research partnerships involving CRUK-funded researchers will involve payments being made by companies to universities and other academic research institutions which operate independently of CRUK. These partnerships fund cancer research directly at those universities and institutions and may be of real value in delivering benefits for patients but because CRUK does not receive the funding, information on such funding is not provided here. When income is received by CRUK from research partnerships that have involved research funded by CRUK and which has been undertaken at universities or other academic research institutions, it is very likely that income will be shared by CRUK with the university or research institution concerned. In turn, those universities and academic research institutions will often share some income with the researchers who have participated in the research (under the applicable reward to inventor policy).
Companies spun out from CRUK (in which CRUK held an equity stake at the start of the financial year) included:
Artios Pharma
Akamis Bio Amplia Therapeutics
Infinitopes
iOnctura
Storm Therapeutics
Zygosity
In FY20/21, CRUK spin outs raised £813.6m, of which CRUK received an amount of £3,430,662.01.
In FY21/22 CRUK spin outs raised £434.8 m. Through sales of our stakes in these spin out companies, CRUK received an amount of £3,984,540.32.
ADC Therapeutic: £2,426,011.25 (Dec 2021)
Sorrento: £198,850.79 (May 2021)
Autolus: £329,360.98 (May 2021)
Autolus: £1,030,317.30 (Jan 2022)
In FY22/23 CRUK spin outs raised over £145m. Through sales of our stakes in these spin out companies, CRUK received an amount of £2,091,788.22, which is wholly derived from Monte Rosa (Nov 2022).
In FY23/24 CRUK spin outs raised over £27m. Through sales of our stakes in these spin out companies, CRUK received an amount of £485,264.99.
In FY24/25 CRUK spin outs raised over £214.2m. Through sales of our stakes in these spin out companies, CRUK received an amount of £399,355, which is wholly derived from Endomagnetics (July 2024).
More details of this funding can be found in the Cancer Research Technology (trading as Cancer Research Horizons) Annual Reviews. Visit the Cancer Research Horizons website.
Sometimes, through Cancer Research Technology Limited, CRUK will receive shares rather than financial payments when research partnerships are created. CRUK does not usually apply a market value to such shareholdings but some information concerning these shareholdings can be found in Cancer Research Technology Limited’s statutory accounts filed at Companies House. When new companies are formed to develop the results of CRUK-funded research, private sector investors will usually allocate shares to universities as well as to Cancer Research Technology Limited. Commonly the investors will also provide shares to academic researchers associated with the new company under consultancy and other contracts.
Find further information on how CRUK delivers impact from the research it funds on the Cancer Research Horizons website.
In addition to the partnerships with industry that CRUK enters into which have as their principal focus the funding of cancer research activities or the development of discoveries made by CRUK-funded researchers (referred to above), CRUK may also enter into partnerships which have as their objective the raising of funds from partners which CRUK will include within its reported annual fundraising. CRUK has a number of partnerships with commercial entities operating in a variety of sectors (including retail) which generate income for the charity. CRUK recognises that entering into fundraising partnerships with pharmaceutical companies require it to ensure that particular care is taken to ensure that CRUK’s independence is preserved. Accordingly, CRUK has adopted principles for fundraising partnerships with pharmaceutical companies including:
Income raised from pharmaceutical companies will not exceed in aggregate 5% of CRUK’s annual turnover (and income from any one company will not exceed 2.5%).
Any fundraising partnership with a pharmaceutical company should operate on a non-exclusive basis.
Fundraising partnerships with pharma companies will not in any way influence how funds are spent on research or any aspect of CRUK’s work.
CRUK will make decisions relating to the funding of research entirely independently of, and uninfluenced by, any fundraising partnership, through peer-review and other funding mechanisms used customarily by CRUK. Funding will be made available to grantees under the standard terms and conditions of CRUK grants which include provisions relating to conflicts of interest, free publication of results and data sharing. Read our research policies and guidance.
CRUK will retain an independent voice on all policy & information work and have the freedom to select which organisation it wishes to engage with in developing their policies, regardless of any fundraising partnerships with pharma.
Unlike research partnerships referred to above, any pharmaceutical company entering into a fundraising partnership with CRUK will not have preferential access to any research data relating to the projects CRUK funds.
Particular care will be taken by CRUK in connection with any permission granted to a pharmaceutical company for the company’s use of CRUK’s name and brand.
The income received from such fundraising partnerships with industry in the FY 20/21 period is: £91,000.00, this is made up of:
J&J: £30,000.00
MSD: £11,000.00
GlaxoSmithKline: £50,000.00
The income received from such fundraising partnerships with industry in the FY 21/22 period was: £80,000.00, this is made up of:
BMS: £80,000.00
The income received from such fundraising partnerships with industry in the FY22/23 period is, £56,000.00, this is made up of:
Roche: £50,000.00
Takeda: £6,000.00
No income was received from such fundraising partnerships with industry in the FY23/24 period or the FY24/25 period.
Sometimes staff employed by a pharmaceutical company will decide to make donations to CRUK through voluntary schemes operated by their employers and these donations are treated by CRUK as individual donations and are not included in the figure above.
CRUK operates a process in which its senior staff are required to declare financial and other material interests (directorships etc.) held with any industrial partners of CRUK. Care is taken by CRUK to ensure that in any research or fundraising partnership care is taken to identify and manage any conflicts of interest.
