Anticancer Partnership for AZ and Singapore Institutions

AstraZeneca has announced an innovative new partnership with the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the National University Hospital (NUH) to develop anticancer compounds. The collaboration aims to further build AstraZeneca’s drug development capabilities in Asia and ultimately speed up access to new medicines of potential benefit to patients with inoperable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). HCC is a cancer that is particularly prevalent in Asia and accounts for approximately one million deaths annually worldwide. Studies have also shown that more than 90% of those afflicted with the cancer die within 5 years due to its inoperability. Dr Brent Vose, Vice President of AstraZeneca’s Oncology Therapeutic Area said: “AstraZeneca is committed to the research and development of new, targeted anticancer therapies in Asia to improve the lives of cancer patients, beginning with those affected by HCC. We have a number of promising candidates in development and look forward to seeing the results of some key studies throughout the next year.”

“Singapore is one of Asia’s fastest growing bioclusters and offers excellent IP protection, a population base representative of Asia, a world-class scientific and clinical infrastructure as well as access to global talent,” said Mr Yeoh Keat Chuan, Executive Director, Biomedical Sciences, Singapore Economic Development Board. “AstraZeneca joins an expanding base of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that have chosen to develop new drugs and therapies in Singapore. It is a strong testament of Singapore’s capabilities in translational and clinical research, particularly in applications for diseases prevalent in Asia.”

Under the terms of the clinical development collaboration, two of Singapore’s leading research institutions — the NCCS and NUH — will be given access to AstraZeneca compounds that have already undergone initial clinical testing in the West. Preclinical activities are also included in the partnership, under the terms of which the same institutions will be given annual access to up to six novel candidate drugs for appraisal of activity in the mouse in vivo primary HCC explant model. For both clinical and preclinical activities, AstraZeneca retains the option to assume further development and marketing of all drugs made available as part of the partnership deal. “This partnership with AstraZeneca is testament to the standard and quality of research in Singapore. We will work closely together to develop new anticancer therapies for Asian patients through access to some of AstraZeneca’s clinical and preclinical compounds and world-class training of our researchers at MCRC,” said Associate Professor Goh Boon Cher, Senior Consultant, Dept of Haematology-Oncology, National University Hospital.