March 15, 2023
CMIC Co., Ltd.

CMIC Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Akihisa Mitake; hereinafter, CMIC) announces that it will join the Lung Cancer Genomic Screening Platform for Individualized Medicine in Asia Pacific (LC-SCRUM-AP) as the first CRO. This project is jointly run by National Cancer Center Hospital East (Matsudo City, Chiba; Hospital Director: Atsushi Otsu; Project Principal Investigator: Koichi Goto [Vice Hospital Director, Director of Department of Thoracic Oncology]) and Precision Medicine Asia Co., Ltd. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Tatsuya Ikeda; hereinafter, PREMIA).

*1 Contract Research Organization: A business that supports the development of drugs by receiving contracts for clinical trials mainly from pharmaceutical companies in the development process of drugs, etc.

 

■ Summary

・LC-SCUM-AP is a large-scale lung cancer genomic screening platform in the Asia-Pacific region with participation by approximately 20 medical institutions in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and Taiwan.

・CMIC is the first CRO to support this project.

・In addition to providing financial support for this project, CMIC will support pharmaceutical companies in Japan and overseas in the development of lung cancer drugs in the Asia-Pacific region.

■ Details

In many countries of East and Southeast Asia, genome medicine based on the analysis of genes has not been fully established. LC-SCRUM-AP aims to establish personalized medicine in the Asia-Pacific region by enabling rapid screening of lung cancer driver genes. Further, building a clinico-genomic database for lung cancer based on genomic screening is expected to promote the drug development and research on lung cancer in the Asia-Pacific region.

PREMIA launched patient data registration systems for participating institutions in Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan on October 31, 2022, and patients from these countries are gradually being registered. We aim to continue expanding these efforts to other Asian countries and to establish this large-scale international clinico-genomic database for lung cancer.

CMIC has 13 offices in multiple Asia Pacific countries as of February 2023. CMIC will utilize these regional offices to raise awareness of LC-SCRUM-AP and approach pharmaceutical companies, biotech ventures, and academic institutions inside and outside Japan, making active efforts to reach foreign pharmaceutical companies with no previous experience conducting clinical development in Japan. We will use the information in this database to proactively propose development strategies involving the Asia-Pacific region to pharmaceutical companies in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, and we will support them in conducting clinical trials.

■ Project Overview

Promoting genome medicine in the Asia-Pacific region based on genomic screening for advanced non-small cell lung cancer

LC-SCRUM-AP is a lung cancer genomic screening platform with approximately 20 participating medical institutions in the Asia-Pacific region (Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and Taiwan).

In Japan, LC-SCRUM-Asia is underway and has registered more than 18,000 lung cancer patients (as of March 2023), contributing to the development and clinical application of various therapies for driver gene-positive lung cancer. LC-SCRUM-AP has expanded LC-SCRUM-Asia to the entire Asia-Pacific region to facilitate the international development of drugs.

Further, this project aims to promote research and development of advanced drugs for lung cancer by building a large-scale clinico-genomic database based on LC-SCRUM-AP.

On October 31, 2022, institutions in Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan began registration for LC-SCRUM-AP. We aim to expand the participating institutions to other Asian countries and to build a large-scale international clinico-genomic database for lung cancer.

  • Subjects: Patients with small-cell lung cancer
  • Registration target: 2000 patients
  • Analysis methods: PCR (AmoyDx Pan Lung Cancer PCR Panel) and NGS (next-generation sequencing; under consideration)
  • Participating institutions: Approximately 20 in the Asia-Pacific region

■ CMIC Representative Comments

Akihisa Mitake, President and CEO of CMIC, made the following statement:

“We are very pleased to be the first CRO to support LC-SCRUM-AP. To date, CMIC has expanded into major Asian markets, starting with an office in South Korea in 1996, followed by offices in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Through our support for LC-SCRUM-AP, we aim to help attract sponsors to conduct clinical trials in the Asia-Pacific region to contribute to the project’s goal of developing diagnostics and therapeutic agents for lung cancer and establishing personalized medicine based on genetic alterations in the region.”

■ About CMIC Group

CMIC was founded in 1992 as the first contract research organization (CRO) in Japan. To enable pharmaceutical companies to develop better medicine sooner, we expanded our solutions to include contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), site support, and market solutions, supporting global companies to bring highly desired treatments to the Japanese market.

CMIC has also entered into the healthcare arena. Leveraging our vast experience and expertise in the medical industry, we offer solutions using a new ecosystem of healthcare to support the individuals and local governments. We strive to be a Personal Health Value Creator (PHVC) to meet our global customers’ needs in the U.S., Japan, and broader Asia. CMIC Group has over 7,500 employees and 27 sites globally. For more information about CMIC Group and services, specifically CRO services, please visit our website. https://en.cmicgroup.com/

■ Contact Us for Media Inquiry

CMIC HOLDINGS Co., Ltd.
PR Group
E-mail: pr@cmic.co.jp