C-Further today announced that Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity), the UK’s largest dedicated charitable funder of child health research, has joined Cancer Research Horizons and LifeArc as a core partner in the international consortium. Together, the organizations will work to transform the landscape of cancer treatment for children and young people by accelerating drug discovery and development.
C-Further is a collaborative initiative bringing together world-leading drug discovery experts, clinicians, partners, and impact investors. Its mission is to address one of the most urgent unmet needs in healthcare: the lack of effective cancer therapeutics designed specifically for younger patients.
A Transformative Investment
As part of its role as a core partner, GOSH Charity will contribute directly to the consortium’s strategic direction and operations, while committing up to £10 million ($13.5 million) over the next four years. This major financial commitment raises the total investment in C-Further to £37 million ($50 million).
For GOSH Charity, this represents the largest single research funding commitment in its history, underscoring its determination to make a step-change in childhood cancer care. The funding will support:
- Adoption of new early-stage therapeutic discovery projects into the pipeline.
- Expansion and diversification of research portfolios to tackle a wider range of childhood cancers.
- Greater operational capacity to move promising therapies toward clinical trials more efficiently.
By combining resources and expertise, the consortium aims to streamline the path from discovery to delivery, giving children access to innovative treatments faster than ever before.
Voices of Partnership
Leaders from all three organizations emphasized the significance of this collaboration.
Aoife Regan, Director of Impact and Charitable Programmes at GOSH Charity, shared her optimism:
“GOSH Charity is thrilled to join C-Further as a core partner, and we look forward to working closely with Cancer Research Horizons and LifeArc to identify new therapeutic project opportunities with the greatest impact for children and young people facing cancer. I’m confident that together, we can help to ensure promising treatments reach clinical trials and ultimately become available to children with the hardest to treat cancers. Alongside this exciting partnership and our ongoing appeal to build a new world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH, we want to do everything we can to give children the best chance, and best childhood possible.”
C-Further’s structure is designed to remove barriers that have historically hindered progress in pediatric oncology. David Jenkinson, Head of Childhood Cancer at LifeArc, explained:
“At C-Further, we aim to tackle major barriers preventing a step-change in outcomes for children and young people with cancer: the lack of drugs specifically designed for these cancers and the unique set of challenges this presents. With GOSH Charity’s renowned expertise, global network and deep ties to patients, C-Further is better positioned to collaborate with the community on systemic challenges and strengthen the innovation ecosystem for better outcomes for children and young people with cancer.”
Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer at Cancer Research Horizons, echoed the importance of this progress:
“From its underlying biology to the long-term effects of treatment on growing bodies, children’s and young people’s cancer presents a unique set of challenges that require tailored approaches to research and drug development. Welcoming GOSH Charity as a C-Further core partner is a powerful step forward in our mission to ensure more children and young people live longer, better lives – free from the fear of cancer.”
Why This Matters
Cancers in children and young people differ significantly from those in adults. They are often driven by distinct biological mechanisms and have unique impacts on growth and development. Yet despite these differences, treatments historically have been adapted from adult oncology, leaving significant gaps in efficacy and long-term safety.
The result is that survival outcomes for many pediatric cancers have plateaued, and children often face severe, lifelong side effects from treatments that were never tailored to their needs.
C-Further’s mission directly addresses this gap by designing drugs specifically for childhood cancers. By uniting charities, research organizations, and funders, the consortium aims to generate a robust pipeline of therapies that can be advanced into clinical trials, ultimately giving young patients access to treatments designed with their biology and future quality of life in mind.
The Role of GOSH Charity
GOSH Charity’s entry into C-Further adds a powerful new dimension to the initiative. The charity has close ties to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, two of the world’s leading institutions in pediatric medicine.
This brings not only scientific and clinical expertise but also deep connections to patient groups and families, ensuring that the voices of children and their loved ones remain central in the innovation process. These networks will be critical in shaping research priorities, fostering collaboration, and accelerating the translation of discoveries into real-world impact.
Next Steps for the Consortium
C-Further has announced that the first wave of therapeutic projects entering its pipeline will be unveiled in the coming months. These projects will represent the beginning of what the consortium hopes will become one of the fastest-growing child-first drug discovery pipelines worldwide.
At the same time, the group is actively inviting like-minded organizations, researchers, and funders to join the initiative. By expanding its network, C-Further aims to build a sustainable ecosystem that can overcome systemic barriers in childhood cancer research and bring lifesaving therapies to young patients faster.
A Shared Vision
This partnership signals more than a financial investment—it reflects a shared vision of a future where children and young people are no longer limited by outdated treatments. Instead, they will have access to therapies that not only extend survival but also preserve the quality of childhood.
For families affected by pediatric cancer, these commitments represent hope that the next generation of therapies will be more effective, more tolerable, and more accessible.
As C-Further and its partners move forward, the consortium stands as a model for how collaboration across charities, research institutions, and industry can create meaningful change in one of the most challenging areas of medicine.
About C-Further
C-Further is an international consortium of drug discovery and development researchers, clinicians, partners and impact investors with a shared commitment to creating new therapeutics for childhood cancers.
We envision a world where childhood cancers are treated effectively, with tailored, and well-tolerated treatments. Together we’re combining expertise from around the world to create an innovation ecosystem that allows us to challenge conventional approaches to developing therapies and accelerate promising ideas towards better outcomes for children living with cancer.
If you share this vision and believe you can contribute, we invite you to connect with us and be part of the change: info@c-further.org.
Visit www.c-further.org for more information.
About Cancer Research Horizons
Cancer Research Horizons is the innovation engine of Cancer Research UK – the world’s largest charitable funder of cancer research. The organisation takes cutting-edge innovations from the lab bench to the bedside, translating them into effective treatments and diagnostics for cancer patients.
To date, Cancer Research Horizons has played an instrumental role in forming over 90 spin-out companies. The organisation has helped bring 14 cancer drugs to market, born out of Cancer Research UK’s pioneering research. Through these drugs, Cancer Research Horizons has enabled in excess of 6 million courses of treatment for cancer patients across the world.
With access to Cancer Research UK’s network of 4,000 exceptional researchers and its £400+ million annual research spend, Cancer Research Horizons is a powerful partner in the fight to conquer cancer.
About LifeArc
LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation that turns promising scientific research into impact for people living with rare diseases and Global Health infections.
We form partnerships and provide scientific expertise and funding to help break down the barriers preventing scientific breakthroughs from becoming life-transforming treatments and cures. We have been doing this for more than 30 years and our work has resulted in five licensed medicines, including cancer drug pembrolizumab and lecanemab for Alzheimer’s disease.
Our goal is a world where no one with a rare disease or a global infectious disease misses out on life-changing innovation because of complexity, cost or risk.
LifeArc is a company limited by guarantee (registered in England and Wales under no. 2698321) and a charity (registered in England and Wales under no. 1015243 and in Scotland under no. SC037861).
About GOSH Charity
Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) stops at nothing to help give seriously ill children childhoods that are fuller, funner and longer. For the hundreds of children from all over the UK who are treated by Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) every day, for children with rare or complex illnesses everywhere, for this generation and all those to come.
GOSH has been transforming the lives of seriously ill children since opening its doors in 1852 and has always depended on charitable support. GOSH Charity funds groundbreaking research into children’s health, cutting-edge medical equipment, child-centred medical facilities and the support services children and families going through the toughest journey of their lives urgently need. But there is so much more we need to do.
The new Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH is under construction, supported by a £300 million fundraising appeal from GOSH Charity. The centre will provide state-of-the-art facilities and create an environment where cutting-edge research can thrive.
To support the ambitions of the new centre, GOSH Charity recently launched our first paediatric cancer research strategy. This sees £15 million from our wider £70 million five-year research strategy dedicated to transforming the outcomes and experiences of children with the rarest and hardest to treat cancers.
We are here to give more children the best chance, and the best childhoods, possible. Because we believe no childhood should be lost to serious illness.
visit www.gosh.org.
