AstraZeneca, Singapore institutions sign innovative new partnership to develop anti-cancer compounds
Healthcare company AstraZeneca Plc (AZN: News, Chart, Quote ,AZN.L: News, Chart, Quote ) said Friday that it signed an innovative new partnership with the National Cancer Centre Singapore, or NCCS, and the National University Hospital, or NUH, for development of anti-cancer compounds. The collaboration is spelt out in a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU.
As per the MOU, AstraZeneca and the Singapore institutions will enter into a collaborative agreement that spans both clinical and pre-clinical development activities.
AstraZeneca noted that the partnership also includes a Training Programme placement with the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, with whom AstraZeneca has a formal research alliance. Singapore Economic Development Board partly supports the training programme. The purpose of the training programme is to train a pool of clinical research professionals for both private-sector and public-sector research labs.
According to AstraZeneca, the partnership aims to further build its drug development capabilities in Asia and ultimately accelerate access to new medicines of potential benefit to patients with inoperable Hepatocellular Carcinoma, or HCC. HCC is a cancer that is particularly prevalent in Asia and accounts for approximately one million deaths annually worldwide.
Under the terms of the clinical development collaboration, NCCS and NUH can access AstraZeneca compounds that have already undergone initial clinical testing in the West.
The institutions have already identified AstraZeneca’s two compounds for clinical screening in inoperable HCC during 2008 and 2009. The company stated that more compounds would be made available at a rate of one per year, for the duration of the partnership, which exists until 2012.
For both clinical and pre-clinical activities, AstraZeneca maintained the alternative to presume further development and marketing of all drugs made available as part of the partnership deal.
AZN closed Thursday’s regular trade at $49.04, up $0.34, on a volume of 1.2 million shares.
