Merck, Lilly, Pfizer Team Up in Unusual Collaboration for Asian Cancer Database
ChinaBio Today submits:
Three of big pharma’s biggest companies, Merck (NYSE: MRK), Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), have banded together to create an Asian not-for-profit company that will construct a pharmacogenomic cancer database in Singapore. The database will compile its information using 2,000 tissue samples from patients with lung and gastric cancer. The information will be made available to researchers with the goal of developing new treatments for gastric and lung cancers, which are prevalent in Asia.
The company, called the Asian Cancer Research Group, is a kind of basic science collaboration among major drug companies that is not often seen. It will be housed at Lilly’s R&D center in Singapore. It will take about two years to create the database.