Conference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat
Asia's Next Frontier: Building Capabilities for Translational Research
Milken InstituteTanisha Carino, Christiana Bardon, Carl Firth, Annalisa Jenkins, Baiju Shah, Chris Bardone
- Asian life expectancy is projected to rise further, building on a historical 43-year gain over the last century and driven by public health investments.
- Capacity building investments in Asia are anticipated to facilitate the transition to advanced treatments and cures.
- Translational research is identified as the critical bridge between basic and clinical research to generate potential innovations.
- The Harrington Project aims to address the "Valley of Death" gap through a hybrid non-profit and for-profit structure to make academic science relevant for patients.
- China's R&D funding in absolute dollars is projected to surpass the US, with this milestone originally expected in 2035 being readjusted to 2020 and accelerated by approximately five years.
- Innovative medicines are expected to remain a small portion of China's pharmaceutical market for years, with the US remaining the dominant component.
- Singapore plans to align a significant portion of a $19 billion investment over a five-year period with commercial opportunities and translational advancement.
- Institutional changes in Singapore, such as reducing publication expectations for collaborating scientists, are intended to shift behavior and increase translational output.
- The industry will increasingly need to recruit individuals with drug development experience to collaborate with academicians and fill the translational research skill gap.
- The transition from mouse models to human trials is expected to remain a significant challenge in Europe and Asia due to rising costs, risks, and a lack of expertise.
- Patient advocacy in Asia is expected to remain in very early and nascent stages for an undetermined period, hindered by cultural perceptions of doctors and limited patient education.
- Operationalizing patient-centric drug development and personalized medicine is expected to face continued challenges for several years due to difficulties in accessing informed patients and data.
- Regulatory science progress is expected to accelerate, particularly in the US and Europe, to support innovation in high-risk research areas.
- The Singapore government is expected to actively enable clinical trials by leveraging command-and-control access to universal medical records.
- Singapore is expected to potentially achieve its goal of mapping a million patients faster than other nations, leveraging its history of delivering on set ambitions.
- China's aspiration to map 100 million patients is considered achievable, potentially yielding significant data sets for future research.
- Continued regulatory reforms in China regarding timelines and data acceptance are expected to dramatically alter the economic equation for drug development.
- Regulatory reforms in China over the last 12 to 18 months are expected to drive a significant increase in innovative drug approvals, rising from 4-5 in previous years to 40 in 2017.
- China's reimbursement scheme is expected to shift from long delays to rolling updates that allow for immediate consideration of newly approved drugs.
- Drug access in China remains uncertain unless a system is established to retain human talent in the region despite approval.
- The adoption of AI-enabled techniques for drug design is expected to face skepticism from traditional team members who have previously seen the concept fail to pan out over 20 years.
- Data quality issues in the healthcare sector are expected to persist as fundamental collection problems rather than purely cultural issues.
- Integrating real-world data with traditional research is expected to remain a major challenge for pharmaceutical companies compared to new entrants like Google or Verily.
- Companies, rather than the NIH, are expected to take the lead in aggregating vast cancer genome sequencing data and deriving commercial value from it.