Cancer patients may have greater access to latest drugs under trial

Singapore cancer consortium admitted to global network that lets it take part in trials

- Zhaki Abdullah

A national cancer consortium here has been admitted into an international expert network that will allow it to participate in global cancer trials.

For Singaporeans, it could mean access to new cancer drugs being tested, while the network will gain access to a diverse pool of Asian trial participants.

The immunotherapy Centres Of Research Excellence (imCore) network is a global alliance of scientific and clinical experts in cancer immunotherapy, led by Swiss healthcare company Roche and its subsidiary, biotechnology firm Genentech.

On July 24, the Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium (STCC) became its 27th member, joining groups such as Johns Hopkins Medicine in the United States, the Asan Medical Centre in South Korea and Germany’s University Hospital Essen.

“Singaporean patients will have access to the very latest types of pharmaceuticals that we’re developing,” said Dr Ira Mellman, vice-president of cancer immunology at Genentech, which is based in the US.

ImCore was launched in 2016, with Roche investing more than $150 million in cancer immunotherapy research at the time.

Among its contributions is helping to fund the development of a pancreatic cancer vaccine candidate that is currently in a Phase II trial.