“Crovalimab could potentially become the first global drug originating from Singapore”

There has been explosive growth in the mid- size molecules and therapeutic antibody market as many cancers, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases have been successfully treated.

- Hithaishi C Bhaskar

Japanese-headquartered Chugai Pharmaceutical has already developed world-class technologies for antibody engineering and mid-size molecule drug discovery which can reach some intracellular targets that were previously difficult to access, and have high binding activity, and good oral absorption. Chugai Pharma has been operating in Singapore since 2012 as a subsidiary, Chugai Pharmabody Research (CPR) developing innovative pharmaceutical products in collaboration with Singapore’s biopharma R&D ecosystem. In an interaction with BioSpectrum Asia, Dr Hisafumi Yamada, Executive Vice President (R&D) at Chugai Pharmaceutical, echoes CRP’s enduring association with the regional biopharma industry on the occasion of completing a decade of presence in Singapore. Edited excerpts;

How significant is the development of mid-size molecule drugs relative to small molecule and antibody modalities to address unmet medical needs?

With mid-size molecule technology, we aim to discover new pharmaceutical drugs that act against intracellular tough targets which are unreachable with small molecules or therapeutic antibodies.

Though they are the most common modalities among pharmaceutical drugs, antibodies can target only extracellular molecules (approximately 20 per cent of all proteins), and small molecules target only molecules with pockets (approx. 20 per cent of all proteins).

It is said that there may be approximately 2,000 proteins involved with disease. However, new drugs launched within the last 10 years target only about 50 of these proteins. Many are still considered undruggable,” as they are difficult to reach by either small molecules or antibodies. We must find a way to reach these tough targets so that we can create innovative new drugs for patients with diseases where there are limited treatment options and high unmet medical needs.