Abstract

Novel Medicines for Unmet Medical Needs - Translational R&D in Singapore

Alex Matter, CEO, Experimental Therapeutics Centre & D3 A*STAR

There are still hundreds, if not thousands of unmet medical needs. Singapore has established over the last decade the main building blocks to pursue Drug Discovery & Development from Target to Proof-of-Concept (PoC) in man. ETC has assembled all the technologies that are needed to perform state-of-the-art drug discovery. The principle is to form a partnership with a premier academic group working on a set of well-defined, validated targets. ETC provides biochemical and biophysical analytics, cell-based assay development, high-throughput screening using a 500 K library and high content screens, medicinal chemistry and modeling as part of in house competencies. Subsequently, a complementary facility (D3) will take up such projects and bring them through preclinical development that will enable to reach an IND (CTC) with one or more health authority. On the basis of this IND, and permission of Institutional Review Boards (IRB) the drug candidate can enter early clinical trials, to reach a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) that is based on evidence of tolerability, plausible pharmacokinetics and biomarker evidence of attractive pharmacodynamics. Two examples shall illustrate the successful implementation of this strategy.