Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer are pulling together to accelerate research on Asia's most common cancers by forming the Asian Cancer Research Group, a “pre-competitive collaboration” devoted to sharing resources and expertise.

 

The group will be not-for-profit, but profit can't be far from the trio's motives: lung and gastric cancers, the center's initial targets, are among the most common forms of cancer in Asia. Gastric cancer is the second most common cause of death on the continent, according to a study by the Institute of Digestive Disease.  And a genetic mutation shown by as many as 40 percent of lung cancer patients in Asia makes the market ripe for a regionally-tailored new treatment.

 

With most pharmaceutical companies straining to stretch their R&D dollars, the collaboration may also pay dividends as its discoveries echo through the academic research community, an ever-fertile source of new promising compounds produced by state and nationally-subsidized labs.

 

“The goal of the ACRG is to improve the knowledge of cancers prevalent in Asia and to accelerate drug discovery efforts by freely sharing the resulting data with the scientific community,” say the companies.

 

The new group’s plan is to create an extensive database of information about the influence of genes on drug efficacy and safety and to make that data publicly available to “inform new approaches to treatment,” the companies say. Analysis of that data could hint at new paths for cancer treatments.

 

“Through its work and the subsequent sharing of information,” says Gary Gilliland, Merck Research Laboratories' senior vice president and franchise head for oncology, “the ACRG hopes to empower researchers, foster innovation and improve the prognosis and treatment of patients with cancer.”