Medical Tribune September 2008 SFXIII
David Brill
A recently announced agreement
is set to give Singapore
unprecedented access
to new drugs for liver cancer.
The 5-year deal will see AstraZeneca
open its research portfolio
on hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC) to the National Cancer
Centre Singapore (NCCS) and National
University Hospital (NUH),
enabling them to take the most
promising new compounds into
preclinical and clinical trials.
A further part of the arrangement
will see a team of Singaporean
researchers travel to the
UK for training placements at the
Manchester Cancer Research Centre
(MCRC).
Under the agreement, one new
drug will be made available each
year for clinical testing in Singapore,
having already passed the
preclinical stages in the West. Six
previously untested compounds
will also be offered for preclinical
research each year, with the most
successful candidates progressing
to phase I and II clinical trials at
NCCS and NUH.
If these are successful then the
drugs will be moved on to phase
III trials, which could be extended
to other Asian countries through
the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular
Carcinoma Trials Group, based at
NCCS. HCC is particularly common
in the continent, which is
thought to have three quarters of
the world’s patients.
“This opens up a new era of
drug development for HCC,” said
Dr. Goh Boon Cher, senior consultant
in the department of hematology-
oncology at NUH.
“Working together brings
Singapore to the fore and brings
compounds earlier to the clinic so
that they can benefit patients. Previously
we had to wait for quite
a period of time before these new
agents could be tested in a disease
which has such dismal outcomes,”
he said.
The first two compounds to
undergo clinical testing have been
named as AZD6244, a signal transduction
blocker, and AZD1152, a
selective inhibitor of cell division.
AstraZeneca will retain marketing
and development rights for all the
drugs made available through the
partnership.
“This devastating disease of liver
cancer kills a million people each
year worldwide, with a prognosis
such that 90 percent of patients will
not be here at the end of this alliance
in 5 years time,” said Dr. Andrew
Hughes, early development
senior director at AstraZeneca.
“We’ve taken a stance that this
is a disease which is crying out
for treatments,” he said, adding
that the information-sharing
model could be extended in future
to other conditions such as gastric
and nasopharyngeal cancer.
Ten placements will be available
at the MCRC, a project which
is also supported by the Singapore
Economic Development Board.
The training placements – five
for clinical researchers, two each
for nursing staff and clinical trial
managers and one for a statistician
– will last between 6 months and
2 years.
Registration for the placements
is expected to open shortly, with
the dates to be finalized once the
positions are filled. For footballmad
oncologists who need further
encouragement a trip to Old Trafford,
home of Manchester United,
is also on the itinerary.
David Brill
A recently announced agreement
is set to give Singapore
unprecedented access
to new drugs for liver cancer.
The 5-year deal will see AstraZeneca
open its research portfolio
on hepatocellular carcinoma
(HCC) to the National Cancer
Centre Singapore (NCCS) and National
University Hospital (NUH),
enabling them to take the most
promising new compounds into
preclinical and clinical trials.
A further part of the arrangement
will see a team of Singaporean
researchers travel to the
UK for training placements at the
Manchester Cancer Research Centre
(MCRC).
Under the agreement, one new
drug will be made available each
year for clinical testing in Singapore,
having already passed the
preclinical stages in the West. Six
previously untested compounds
will also be offered for preclinical
research each year, with the most
successful candidates progressing
to phase I and II clinical trials at
NCCS and NUH.
If these are successful then the
drugs will be moved on to phase
III trials, which could be extended
to other Asian countries through
the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular
Carcinoma Trials Group, based at
NCCS. HCC is particularly common
in the continent, which is
thought to have three quarters of
the world’s patients.
“This opens up a new era of
drug development for HCC,” said
Dr. Goh Boon Cher, senior consultant
in the department of hematology-
oncology at NUH.
“Working together brings
Singapore to the fore and brings
compounds earlier to the clinic so
that they can benefit patients. Previously
we had to wait for quite
a period of time before these new
agents could be tested in a disease
which has such dismal outcomes,”
he said.
The first two compounds to
undergo clinical testing have been
named as AZD6244, a signal transduction
blocker, and AZD1152, a
selective inhibitor of cell division.
AstraZeneca will retain marketing
and development rights for all the
drugs made available through the
partnership.
“This devastating disease of liver
cancer kills a million people each
year worldwide, with a prognosis
such that 90 percent of patients will
not be here at the end of this alliance
in 5 years time,” said Dr. Andrew
Hughes, early development
senior director at AstraZeneca.
“We’ve taken a stance that this
is a disease which is crying out
for treatments,” he said, adding
that the information-sharing
model could be extended in future
to other conditions such as gastric
and nasopharyngeal cancer.
Ten placements will be available
at the MCRC, a project which
is also supported by the Singapore
Economic Development Board.
The training placements – five
for clinical researchers, two each
for nursing staff and clinical trial
managers and one for a statistician
– will last between 6 months and
2 years.
Registration for the placements
is expected to open shortly, with
the dates to be finalized once the
positions are filled. For footballmad
oncologists who need further
encouragement a trip to Old Trafford,
home of Manchester United,
is also on the itinerary.
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