Inside C-Further’s operating model
C-Further was established as a strategic joint venture by some of the UK’s most influential medical research organisations, with the aim of bridging the gap between promising fundamental science, and commercial biotech execution in the paediatric oncology space.
Together, our founding members have contributed to bringing over 20 drugs to market, across oncology and rare disease indications. While we leverage this track record and delivery capability, we work independently and flexibly under an industry-grade operating model.
Moving beyond the remit of traditional grant funding bodies, we deploy our capital, infrastructure, and drug discovery expertise to focus on active pipeline development, strategic leadership, and milestone-driven progress. Our objective is to advance high-potential therapeutics and map out a clear route to patients and market for underserved paediatric indications.
In the article below, we outline our framework and how our hybrid model creates long-term value and clinical impact.
Building a robust pipeline of therapeutics, not only funding scientific advances
Driving innovations through the "market failure" in children's and young people's cancer requires more than just money, which is why C-Further has adopted a specialised, biotech-style approach. Underpinned by $50m/£37m initial investment and comprehensive industry-grade drug discovery capabilities, C-Further was established to bridge the translational gap in paediatric oncology and get more treatments to market. Grant funding remains vital for exploring new fundamental biology, but closing that gap needs a dedicated conversion engine as well.
Any collaboration we initiate is paired with active operational leadership, co-development and drug discovery expertise and capabilities. We do not simply enable research; we shape strategy, drive decision-making, oversee programme delivery and map the pipeline towards patients.
Being asset-focused means we don’t only look for interesting and ready science, but we also consider how these therapies will fit into care pathways, clinical trial feasibility and market viability.
Grant-awarding bodies | C-Further | |
|---|---|---|
Primary objective | To fund fundamental scientific research and exploration of new biology | To co-develop therapeutics leveraging validated targets, accelerating their progression through preclinical discovery and beyond. |
Technical support & expertise | Minimal: the funded researcher manages the project within their own lab | Active co-development: Seamless integration of our industry-grade capabilities, drug discovery expertise, and a global ecosystem of KOLs and partners. |
Project management | Periodic reporting and academic milestones | Strategic and operational management to drive assets to preclinical candidate nomination and onward IND-enabling studies. (pending milestones and go/no-go conditions are met within projected timelines) |
Success criteria | High-impact publications and additional research funding | Bringing drugs to clinical trials and creating long-lasting impact for young patients. This also includes identifying the commercial pathways and financial models with the greatest potential to support the drug's development in later stages. |
Pipeline stage | Fundamental science & early target identification and validation | The entry points for projects to join our pipeline are between hit identification through to lead optimisation. We are fully committed to driving these assets seamlessly along the entire drug discovery and drug development continuum. |
IP handling | Often remains solely with the host institution (depending on terms) | C-Further seeks to build a protected IP package to ensure sustainable patient impact, and be able to drive new financial models for progressing assets |
Where C-Further adds value: overcoming the translational gap in paediatric oncology
C-Further’s pipeline strategy is to discover and advance a range of potential first-in-class or best-in-class, child-focused therapeutic projects to address some of the most challenging indications in paediatric cancer. Projects that are most likely to be considered for a collaboration should focus on one of the following phases:
Hit identification entry: Includes projects where a given target has been thoroughly validated in the context of the proposed disease indication and perhaps early identification of chemical or biological hit matter has begun.
Hit-to-lead entry: Includes projects where hit matter has been identified and the process to select a superior biological or chemical lead and back-up molecules has begun.
Lead optimisation: Includes projects where a lead or lead panel has been established, and the goal is to refine potency, selectivity, ADMET, and developability ahead of preclinical candidate nomination, as well as generating in vivo proof-of-concept and efficacy data. This can also include humanisation of the lead antibody.
Building on the complementary strengths of each partner, we rely on our collaborators' deep understanding of the underlying biology, together with their established in vitro and in vivo preclinical models and assays, to validate the therapeutic concept. In turn, C-Further brings drug discovery expertise and industry-grade capabilities, supported by the track record, expertise and network of its founding members.
What’s next is already in place
What sets C-Further apart is that we’re not building post-discovery capability from scratch; we can plug directly into the infrastructure of the exceptional network built by our founding organisations: Cancer Research Horizons, LifeArc and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, where justified by the strategy. For example, we can leverage Cancer Research UK's Centre for Drug Development to design and deliver early-phase trials, or call on the clinical, regulatory and policy relationships our founders have spent decades building.
To learn more about how far we can go together, get in touch with our team: info@c-further.org
Upcoming deadline: 4 September 2026
We welcome expressions of interest at any time, but to be reviewed in this round, they must be submitted before the closing date at 23:59 GMT. Early submissions are encouraged.
