Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

WITH the aim to uncover common goals from existing differences, experts from home and abroad gathered to discuss innovative drug development trends and agendas at the Shenzhen International Biotech Summit 2017 held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on Thursday.

The exclusive dialogue mainly reviewed the achievements of modern medicine from the perspectives of innovations in drug research and development as well as the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and discussed the current trends and the future agendas of medical advancement.

In terms of the differences in cancer research between the U.S. and China, the former has many advantages, such as the CancerLinQ, an American big data platform for cancer research, whereas China lacks such a platform, an expert said.

“In the era of gene sequencing, it can be said that data are becoming more and more important,” said Otis W. Brawley, fellow of the American Academy of Medical Sciences. He added that conducting large-scale data collection with CancerLinQ would help when choosing the treatment schemes for patients.

Zhang Xuemin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, agreed that each tumor patient is a study object and that data must first be accumulated in order to push tumor research and treatment to a new level.

As for analyzing information from big data for clinical treatment, Ji Jiafu, director of Beijing Cancer Hospital, says that he believes that the only way to do so is through clinical studies.

In addition, another heated debate was over the establishment of a State-level platform for clinical drug research and testing.

Tan Weihong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said such a platform is necessary. “Over the past two years, I have done some research at the affiliated hospitals of several universities across the country. I think the platform can start with an alliance from the affiliated hospitals of Chinese universities.”

Zhang added that the lack of clinical trials are a critical factor limiting China’s drug development. Thus, it is crucial to establish a big data platform for recording the characteristics and toxicity of new medicines currently under development.

“I’d really like to see Chinese hospitals develop new drugs with standardized regulations and start a platform,” said Brawley, adding that 10 or 20 hospitals are enough to create the platform and conduct clinical trials and research systematically.