Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced its collaboration with the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the National University Hospital (NUH) in pre-clinical and clinical development activities of anti-cancer compounds.

The partnership, which was sealed with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the parties, aims to further build the company's drug development capabilities in Asia, and ultimately, accelerate access to new medicines of potential benefit to patients with inoperable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), more commonly known as liver cancer.

Under the terms of the clinical development collaboration, NCCS and NUH will be given access to AstraZeneca compounds that have undergone initial clinical testing in the West. They will also be given access to as many as six novel candidate drugs for pre-clinical appraisal in mouse models.

In addition, the collaborative agreement includes a training programme placement with the Manchester Cancer Research Centre in the United Kingdom, with whom AstraZeneca has a formal research alliance. Supported in part by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the programme seeks to train a pool of clinical research professionals for both private and public sector research labs.

"AstraZeneca is committed to the research and development of new, targeted anti-cancer therapies in Asia to improve the lives of cancer patients, beginning with those affected by HCC. There is a huge unmet need for treatment of liver cancer in Asia, particularly East Asia, where three-quarters of the world's HCC patients are," says Dr Brent Vose, Vice President, Oncology Therapeutic Area, AstraZeneca.

The five-year alliance with NCCS and NUH marks a significant investment from the Anglo-Swedish company in Singapore. It underscores Singapore's progress in translational and clinical research that will bring discoveries from the bench to the bedside and the marketplace, and ultimately, improve human healthcare.

"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," says Yeoh Keat Chuan, Executive Director, Biomedical Sciences, EDB.