NEW YORK – A group of Singapore's public healthcare bodies and Roche said on Wednesday that they have formed a public-private collaboration to advance personalized medicine, including precision oncology, in the country.
The specific public-sector bodies involved in the partnership include the Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium, a business unit under the Ministry of Health Holdings' Consortium for Clinical Research and Innovation, along with National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS), the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) at the National University Hospital. For their part of the collaboration, these groups will bring their medical and research expertise, and will use their data resources to create a clinico-genomic database comprising clinical insights and real-world evidence.
The NCCS and NCIS will also utilize their network of experts and existing programs, such as the Singapore Immunogram for Immuno-oncology (SIGNAL) and Cancer Liquid Biopsies for Real-time diagnostics and early intervention (CaLiBRe), to expand access to genomic testing and create a precision medicine infrastructure.
Within the partnership, Roche will provide cancer patients in Singapore genomic profiling through its subsidiary Foundation Medicine. Roche will also advise public health bodies as they develop a clinico-genomics database, drawing on Foundation and subsidiary Flatiron Health's experience building such a repository with more than 400,000 patient profiles.
"Insights gained from the collection of high-quality, standardized genomic data in these databases can supplement or amplify clinical studies to help accelerate research and development," Ryan Harper, Roche Singapore's general manager, said in a statement.