JCC E-Magazine September 2017

During the start of the lecture.

A science and technology lecture on the drug discovery of antibody therapeutics and research activities in Chugai Pharmabody Research Pte. Ltd. (CPR) was held at JCC (Japan Creative Centre) on Tuesday, 29 August 2017.

Dr. Tomoyuki Igawa, CEO and Research Head at CPR in Singapore, started his talk by introducing fundamental knowledge on antibody therapeutics such as “What is antibody?”, “Characteristics of therapeutic antibody”, and one of already launched therapeutic antibody medications, Actemra® – an anti-IL6 receptor antibody discovered by their parent company, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Chugai).

Following which, Dr. Igawa explained and presented a video about Chugai and CPR – the overview, history, products, R&D capabilities, as well as antibody drug development in Japan and in Singapore. Dr. Igawa also introduced the reasons why Singapore was chosen. According to his explanation, due to her innovative environment for world-class biomedical research and the “recruitability” of highly trained multi-national scientists and support from the government were key factors for Chugai to set up the laboratory in Singapore.

Dr. Tomoyuki Igawa, CEO and Research Head at CPR in Singapore.

Guests at the lecture.

Lastly, Dr. Igawa introduced the research activities of Chugai & CPR including their history of biological research, starting from an explanation of bispecific antibody technology for hemophilia A drug that mimics factor VIII followed by the explanation on cancer targeted antibody which redirect T cells to cancer cells. He also touched on innovative Chugai’s proprietary technologies such as Recycling Antibody® technology which allows antibody to bind to the antigen repeatedly. With this technology, Chugai was able to develop more patient friendly drugs such as second generation of Actemra®. He concluded his presentation by introducing anti-dengue virus antibody which was created by A*STAR Singapore Immunology Network and optimized by CPR.

There was also a Q&A session after the lecture, where Dr. Igawa interacted with some of the guests including high school students and answered their questions. It was indeed a knowledgeable lecture and the audience witnessed the in-depth cooperation and friendly ties between Japan and Singapore in Bio-medical field as well!

Dr. Igawa interacting with guests.

Guests during the Q&A session.		Guests during the Q&A session.
Dr. Igawa interacting with guests.		Dr. Igawa interacting with guests.
Guests looking at the science and technology related information available at the lecture.		Group photo of our JCC Director Ms Akiko Sugita with Dr. Igawa and staffs of both JCC and CPR.

< Home