The National Institutes of Health and 11 biopharmaceutical companies today launched the Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies (PACT). This is a five-year-public-private research collaboration totaling $215 million as part of the Cancer Moonshot.

PACT’s goal is to deliver and help advance drugs and immunotherapies to effectively use the body’s immune system to combat cancer. PACT will carry out clinical testing of biomarkers to advance the understanding and mechanisms of response and resistance to cancer therapy.

“This new public-private partnership is a significant step forward in the battle against cancer and a real boost to the potential of immunotherapy,” said Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan.

The 11 biopharma companies involved in PACT have all delivered strong and positive results from their clinical trials for drugs and therapies.

“We have seen dramatic responses from immunotherapy, often eradicating cancer completely for some cancer patients,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.  “We need to bring that kind of success — and hope — for more people and more types of cancers, and we need to do it quickly.   A systematic approach like PACT will help us to achieve success faster.”

PACT partners include AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY); Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (VTX: ROG), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD), GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK), Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NYSE: NVS),and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).

The 11 companies will contribute up to $1 million per year for five years. NIH will contribute $160 million over the five years based on its available funds.

The partnership will be managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), with the Food and Drug Administration serving in an advisory role.