SEOUL - A month after an announcement about entering the biosimilars sector, South Korea's leading conglomerate, Samsung Group, is gearing up to get a stronger foothold in the pharmaceutical industry through establishing connections with established players.

The group's hospital arm affiliate, Samsung Medical Center, formed a "whole genome" research partnership with Pfizer under which the companies will analyze tumors from Korean patients. The joint endeavor could ultimately lead to the development of liver cancer drugs.

"Under the deal [signed in June in Seoul], Samsung and Pfizer are to generate gene expression profiles, which may ultimately direct therapies and enhance clinical outcomes in patients with liver cancer," Pfizer Korea spokeswoman Chong Da-Jeong told PharmAsia News. "The deal with Samsung Medical Center is basically Pfizer Korea's first joint research project with a Korean hospital."

Samsung Medical Center is one of the leading general hospitals operating in Korea. The medical center has two hospitals in Seoul and another one outside the capital.

"Pfizer Korea has decided to team up with Samsung Medical Center because of the hospital's well recognized top scientists such as Professor Park Cheol-Guen, Professor Im Ho-Young and Professor Paik Soon-Myung," she said, while adding that the three professors will be responsible for research in Seoul while Dr. Neil Gibson, Pfizer's VP of Oncology Research, will represent Pfizer in the joint research program.

Ending years of exploration for new business, Samsung Group is aggressively establishing itself in the healthcare sector (Also see "Samsung Group Set To Enter Biosimilars Market With $1.9 Billion Investment" - Scrip, 17 May, 2010.).

The company is building a solid foundation for developing new cancer drugs by providing top-quality medical services through organic collaborations. Samsung Medical Center said it has also been building an extensive base of specimens in the liver cancer area by accumulating the know-how for diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer.

Liver And Stomach Cancer Common In Korea

"Because liver cancer is one of the most frequent cancers among Koreans, along with stomach cancer, Samsung and Pfizer have decided to cooperate on studying liver cancer," Samsung Medical Center spokesman Song Hoon said in an interview. "The ultimate goal of our work will be the development of liver cancer drugs for Asia and the rest of the world."

Song said the joint project with Pfizer is expected to a lead to a new "message of hope" for patients with liver cancer across the world, especially in Asia.

"The project with Pfizer is also in line with Korea's national project pushed by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs," Song said.

Song noted that in 2009, Samsung Medical Center was named by the ministry to join a national project on leading research-based hospitals to work with local and global pharmaceutical companies to develop novel biotech therapies.

Pfizer's Neil Gibson said the partnership with Samsung will serve as an opportunity to "combine Pfizer's know-how in drug development and Samsung Medical Center's extensive genome information and technology in the liver cancer area."

"We further plan to share the ownership of collected and analyzed data with Samsung Medical Center, contributing to advance a variety of oncology research in Korea," he said.

Pfizer's latest deal with Samsung comes after a memorandum of understanding Pfizer signed with Korea's health ministry in 2007 to invest KRW 300 billion ($238 million) from 2008 to 2012 in Korea (PharmAsia News, June 19, 2007).

Following the MOU, Pfizer and Korea's state-run Korea Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology signed a more formal agreement to start collaborative research on the joint development of drugs for liver and gastric cancer (Also see "Pfizer Korea Signs Development Pact With State KRIBB For Liver and Gastric Cancer Drugs" - Scrip, 18 May, 2009.).

- Peter Chang (p.chang@elsevier.com)

[Editor's note: Pfizer's VP of Oncology Research Neil Gibson will be presenting at the 2nd PharmAsia Summit: Taking the Risk Out of Asia (Oct. 25-26, San Francisco). For a list of speakers and topics, click here.]

Korea's Samsung And Pfizer In Genome Research Partnership To Fight Liver Cancer

More from Archive

More from Scrip