Global drugmakers, regulatory officials and scientists are teaming up to push the US and China to co-operate on research to speed up the process of developing new cancer drugs through a form of “ping-pong diplomacy”.
The Bloomberg International Cancer Coalition will be launched in Singapore later this month to create a body through which the two countries can collaborate, despite recriminations and division between the superpowers during the pandemic.
By tapping the two largest populations of cancer patients in the world, the coalition aims to significantly reduce the time needed to collect enough data to prove a new drug is safe and effective. Concrete goals include creating standards on how patients are selected for the new, more tailored, cancer medicines.