Oxford and GSK to collaborate on cancer research in India
pharmafile | November 18, 2005 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Â
The University of Oxford and GlaxoSmithKline are to work together with researchers in India to set up the country's first cancer trials network.
A range of cancer types including gall bladder, liver and cervical cancers are more prevalent in India than in Europe or North America, and will be researched at a number of leading academic centres in India.
The project will be co-ordinated from the university's Department of Clinical Pharmacology and will receive initial three-year funding from GSK.
"This collaboration offers benefit to cancer patients in India who will now gain wider access to clinical trials of potential new medicines," said Allen Oliff, senior vice president and head of the GSK Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery responsible for cancer therapy.
The network's management team will be led by Professor David Kerr, Rhodes Professor of cancer therapeutics and clinical pharmacology at Oxford and director of the UK's National Translational Cancer Research Network (NTRAC).
Professor Kerr commented: "We at Oxford are delighted to lead this unique opportunity between Indian centres of clinical excellence and a research-based company such as GSK. Much like NTRAC, the aim of Indian network is to build a research infrastructure and workforce capacity that will support the advancement of novel anti-cancer therapeutics from the laboratory into the clinic and to test their promise in each stage of clinical trials, putting the network on a par with the best in the world for conducting cancer trials."
Dr Vinod Raina, Professor of Medical Oncology and Head of the Delhi Cancer Registry, Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi added: "India currently has one million cases of cancer and this collaboration is further proof of progressive policies being followed in India. It is hoped that the network, through these publicly funded regional cancer centres, will provide a platform for cancer research with priority to carry out research in cancers common in India."
Dr Raina said the new research network would give Indian patients faster access to new cancer treatments, with the initial emphasis on improving research infrastructures and raising practices to meet international standards.
The senior specialist oncologists are based at the following Indian centres:
1. Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
2. Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Panjagutta, Hyderabad
3. Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore
4. Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai
5. Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala
6. Gujarat Cancer Centre, Asarwa, Ahmedabad
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