Enhancing drug discovery and development in Asia
Asia's fast-growing healthcare sector has jolted pharmaceutical companies to establish headquarters in the region. It is also demanding more effective therapies. As such, discover how external alliances and public-private partnerships can help companies to make medical breakthroughs in Asia.
Overview
As the global population age and demand for more effective healthcare solutions increases, new medical needs will emerge and the disease burden of the developing world will increasingly resemble that of the developed.
Fast-growing healthcare needs in asiaIn Asia, the world's fastest growing region, diseases such as gastric cancer, metabolic diseases and dengue are more prevalent. At the same time, Asia is ageing and becoming more sophisticated in their choice of healthcare needs. These trends translate into growing demand for more effective therapies to address unmet healthcare needs.
Differences in ethnic origin, diet and environmental factors have produced marked variations in the nature and incidence of the disease subtypes from which these populations suffer. The second leading cause of cancer death worldwide, gastric cancer is particularly common in East Asia, but does not get as much attention as other cancers because of its lower incidence in the West. Now it will.
Accelerating innovationThe pharmaceutical sector will find it hard to address growing healthcare needs unless it can reverse its low productivity in the lab. Companies now spend far more on R&D and produce far fewer new molecules than it did 20 years ago.
According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report*, North American spending on biopharmaceutical R&D in 2006 reached a record US$55.2 billion. But the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved only 22 new molecular entities and biologics, a far cry from the 53 it approved in 1996 when R&D expenditure was less than half the sum it is now. The industry is investing twice as much in R&D as it was a decade ago but only managed to produce two-fifths of the new medicines it then produced.
Multinational drug makers have to alter their strategies as their research efforts are failing to engender new drugs to replenish the patented products pipeline.
And this is where collaboration comes in between, for example, biotech start-ups, public-sector research institutes and contract research organisations. PWC analysts believe that Pharma will have to work more closely with governments, regulators and the healthcare community to make the medicines patients really need, test them as quickly and effectively as possible, and provide a more holistic healthcare service.
As companies move to capture the expertise in external partners to strengthen their pipeline of new drugs, Singapore's high-quality basic and clinical research makes it a leading partner in Asia for R&D collaborations.
Facts on the ground
Companies including AstraZeneca and Bayer are partnering institutes at Singapore's academic medical campuses, which co-locates universities with hospitals and medical institutes, to carry out translational and clinical research. In January 2010, Roche entered into an alliance with Singapore's scientific and medical institutes to set up the Roche-Singapore Hub for Translational Medicine.
Global pharmaceutical companies with R&D bases in the Biopolis - a biomedical research hub that co-locates public-sector institutes and private-sector corporate labs - include Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Novartis, and Takeda. Recent biotech additions to Biopolis include Inviragen and FORMA Therapeutics.
In addition, regional clinical networks such as the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular Carcinoma (AHCC) Trials Group and the Cancer Therapeutics Research Group (CTRG) have established a strategic base in Singapore. The AHCC has its secretariat based at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and clinical trial database managed by the Singapore Clinical Research Institute. CTRG was formed in October 1997 by Prof John Wong, National University Health System, and Prof James Bishop, Sydney Cancer Centre and University of Sydney, to develop new therapeutic strategies for cancers common to Asia- Pacific.
The Singapore difference
Singapore has built up an integrated national research network of 30 research institutes, academic medical campuses and medical institutes that enable companies to tap into Singapore's multidisciplinary capabilities across basic, translational and clinical research to improve R&D decision-making and accelerate innovation.
As leading clinician networks (e.g. AHCC, CTRG) and contract research organisations (e.g. Quintiles) establish a strategic home base here, Singapore is becoming the thought leader in diseases that are prevalent in Asia. Singapore thus emerges as a key site for judgment-based research to manage and drive clinical research across multiple sites in Asia. Today, leading companies such as Eisai, Takeda and Novartis have set up their drug development centres and regional clinical coordination centres in Singapore.
Located at the heart of Asia with a population base that is representative of key Asian ethnic groups, Singapore provides a home base of innovation for companies to test and develop new solutions for Asia and beyond.
Research carried out according to high scientific and ethical standards will help to gather important Asian medical insights and improve R&D decision-making. Singapore has built up a strong base of 4,300 researchers in corporate labs and research institutes that expend more than S$1 billion each year in biomedical R&D. Singapore's intellectual output has ranged from publications in high-impact journals and approved and filed patents, to public-private partnerships and spin-off companies.
In 2006, Singapore introduced the Translational & Clinical Research (TCR) Flagship Programme for researchers and clinician-scientists to collaborate in solving scientific problems and translate their research into quality healthcare solutions. One of these, for gastric cancer, has achieved some notable results thus far. In the first 1,629 patient-years of surveillance, the screening programme has detected 10 cases of early gastric cancer.
As soon as it launched its biomedical sciences initiative a decade ago, Singapore started building next-generation infrastructure. Within three years, two million square feet of research space at the Biopolis was ready for collaborations between private-sector labs and research institutes. From the year 2005, Singapore extended into building up key capabilities and infrastructure in translational and clinical research.
Today, Singapore presents a one-stop location and an integrated network for activities from drug discovery to early-phase trials activities, as well as managing multi-centre late-phase trials across the region. Companies that seek to develop more effective therapies to address Asia's unmet healthcare needs won't have to look further than Singapore.
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