The partnership, which will include researchers at Singapore’s National University Hospital, covers the pre-clinical and clinical development of six candidate drugs from the UK major’s pipeline.
Another feature of the agreement is the provision, though the NCCS, of Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) funding for a training placement programme at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre in the UK, with which AstraZeneca has a long standing collaboration.
Speaking about the deal Brent Rose, AstraZeneca’s vice president of oncology, said that the firm is: “Committed to the research and development of new, targeted anti-cancer therapies in Asia.”
Rose explained that there is a huge unmet need for cancer treatments in the region, particularly in East Asia where HCC is prevalent. Around 75 per cent of the HCC cases worldwide occur in the region, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics,
AstraZeneca’s decision to partner with Singaporean researchers is further evidence of the high level of technical expertise that the country’s workforce has to offer, National Healthcare Group (NHG) CEO Lim Suet Wun said that: "165 out of 1,069 ongoing research studies in NHG focus on oncology.”
Wun added that: “The collaboration with AstraZeneca will provide an excellent platform for our researchers and research support team to access renowned expertise and facilities at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, all with the aim to develop [improved] outcomes for cancer patients."
In Asia for Asia
Chris Sampson, media relations officer at AztraZeneca, told in-PharmaTechnologist that two of the compounds covered by the agreement, the MEK pathway inhibitor AZD-6244 and the selective cytokenesis inhibitor AZD-1152, have already been selected for clinical development.
Sampson went on to say that the NCCS collaboration, which will run for an initial five-year period, is part of the firm’s plan to expand drug development and research capabilities in Asia.
He explained that: “We’re also expanding external collaborations in China such as [the] $14m collaboration with Wuxi Pharmatech in compound collection synthesis and a collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University on genetics of schizophrenia.”
“Just last month AstraZeneca entered into a strategic alliance with the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica in China to conduct preclinical drug safety evaluation studies,” Sampson added.
Sampson also said that AstraZeneca is: “always looking for new way to partner and share [development],” and added that the company is committed to being “in Asia for Asia.”