Bill Denny

He has a string of accomplishments as a medicinal chemist and drug designer, and is co-director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC) - an organization internationally regarded as one of the world's leading anti-cancer drug developers.

The Auckland and Oxford University-educated Denny has helped take eight novel anti-cancer drugs to clinical trial stage, has filed around 100 patents and has had his work appear in about 600 science publications.

To add to this, he has earned accolades as a Rutherford Medallist of the Royal Society of New Zealand, an Adrian Albert Medallist of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to cancer research.

Drug successes

Denny remains doggedly modest about his achievements, preferring to talk about them in the wider context of the ACSRC team based at Auckland University's medical school.

"We've delivered eight drugs into clinical trial, and five of those were first in their class. And I think that for all of us here collectively, not just me, it is a very significant achievement," he says.

In 2010 alone, three more of the centre's anti-cancer compounds were selected for clinical trials. Earlier, in 2000, the irreversible kinase inhibitor Canertinib - developed jointly by the ASCRC and Pfizer - was the first of its kind to reach clinical trials.

Despite Canertinib being halted at phase II, its creation has enabled other developers to devise similar compounds that work on the same principle - benefiting cancer research as a whole.

"If we're successful in getting a drug all the way to market, terrific. If we're not, we're still adding to the armamentarium of drugs and ideas that are out there," he says.

Commercialization a focus

Getting a compound to market is, however, one of the centre's main goals. The first drug it developed - the anti-leukaemia drug Amsacrine - went on the market in 1983 and is still used today.

"We learned long ago that if you're real about this business, you simply can't be an academic group publishing your work. You have to secure the patents early and you have to be willing to be engaged," Denny says.

The ACSRC's core funding from the Auckland Cancer Society, along with grants and commercial contracts, has helped support the centre's commercial visions. And, together with local and offshore investment, the centre has established two start-up companies - the Auckland and San Diego based Proacta Inc, and the Auckland and Melbourne based Pathway Therapeutics - for its promising anti-cancer compounds.

Drug development growing in NZ

The ACSRC is not alone in its competencies. Denny has been involved in New Zealand's drug development sector since 1972 and has observed its expansion over the years.

"There are now a number of private companies, not simply the ones we're involved with, that are based here in New Zealand doing very good things, so it's been quite a growth area," he says.

Denny hopes the centre's success in attracting commercial contracts and investment will also help grow a wider local network of the services it draws on - such as patent law, toxicology and drug manufacturing.

Funding is, of course, not the only crucial element to success. As Denny explains, it is the expertise of those in New Zealand's drug development sector who are pushing it from strength to strength.

"In the end it's people. We have some very bright people and are fortunate to have them and hold them."