Reviving Deprioritized Assets FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Summary
On March 5, 2026, ACCELERATE brought together experts in New York City to tackle a longstanding and perplexing question: how can we get promising cancer medicines that were set aside by companies into clinical trials for children, adolescents, and young adults? Many of these “shelved” medicines already have safety or activity data in adults. The group’s goal was to design a practical path to revive or redirect these assets so young patients aren’t left waiting.
Participants from pharma and biotech, advocacy, academia, regulators, and innovative non-profit developers agreed on developing and piloting a turnkey approach for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and teams plus a clear intake/evaluation pathway to move deprioritized assets out of industry efficiently. The proposed framework includes a centralized service dedicated to identifying pharmaceutical compounds that show potential for treating childhood cancers, but whose development has been discontinued by the originating company. In addition, a neutral, not-for-profit hub would evaluate potential drugs, connect them with capable development partners. To increase awareness and encourage companies to transfer the program rather than put on the shelf, a public pledge by key leaders within industry, celebration of successful partnerships, and empowered pediatric champions would open a clear “external route” to transfer drugs that no longer fit adult programs. This turnkey transfer process could simplify legal and business steps and offer a lower cost opportunity for industry to demonstrate “Corporate Social Responsibility”.
To move quickly, four work packages were launched:
- A public pledge and value case, aiming for at least two pharma signers within six months;
- The hub and scouting model, with a pilot in three months and at least fifteen assets reviewed within a year;
- Policy and incentive mapping, including vouchers and tax credits; and
- Master legal templates to reduce contracting delays.
Progress updates are planned to coincide with ACCELRATE and other oncology conferences for June 2026 (Chicago), the ACCELERATE Pediatric Strategy Forum, (October 2026, Paris) and the ACCELERATE Annual Conference (February 2027; Brussels).
Working Group Overview
Full Title: Working Group 10 - Reviving Deprioritized Assets for Children and Young People
Status: New
Start Date: March, 2026
End Date: Ongoing
Executive leadership:
- Nicole Scobie, ACCELERATE Chair
- Elizabeth Fox, Vice-Chair
- Gilles Vassal, Scientific Committee Chair
Project Steering Committee:
- Michele Cleary, Chief Executive Officer, Advancium Health Network
- Elizabeth Fox, Vice-Chair
- Jacobson
- Brenda Weigel, Vice President of Clinical Research Administration at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Carolyn Calhoun will be responsible for scheduling and AI assisted meeting summary provided to members within 3 business days of each meeting. Up to six members including stakeholders (pharma/biotech, advocacy, non-traditional model, academia) and subject matter experts to broaden perspectives will meet virtually on cadence necessary to achieve deliverables. Regulatory stakeholder may function as ad hoc subject matter experts (SME) to workgroups. Each workgroup will establish a leader who is responsible for facilitation of discussion, final review of meeting summaries, creation of meeting agenda and assignment of responsibilities within the workgroup. Scheduling will be coordinated and AI assisted meeting summary provided to members within 3 business days of meeting by Brenda Adair.
