AstraZeneca to partner on anti-cancer drugs in Asia

SINGAPORE AstraZeneca will collaborate with the National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singapore’s National University Hospital to develop anti-cancer compounds, AstraZeneca announced Friday.

AstraZeneca hopes the collaboration will further build its drug-development capabilities in Asia, particularly medicines for hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC, a cancer prevalent in Asia that kills about 1 million people worldwide every year. HCC is inoperable, and studies show that 90 percent of those who contract it die within five years.

“Singapore is one of Asia’s fastest growing bio-clusters and offers excellent [intellectual property] protection, a population base representative of world-class scientific and clinical infrastructure, as well as access to global talent,” said Yeoh Keat Chuan, executive director of biomedical sciences for the Singapore Economic Development Board. “AstraZeneca joins an expanding base of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that have chosen to develop new drugs and therapies in Singapore.”