CYBERJAYA, April 13 (Bernama) -- Hematogenix, the first central oncology clinical trials lab in Malaysia, brings the nation a step closer to making it the preferred destination in the region for clinical research. The facility in Cyberjaya, which was visited earlier today by the Minister of Health YB Khairy Jamaluddin, has been operational since June 2021, providing specialized services for cancer research.
 
Hematogenix is the sole facility within the Asia Pacific region to be CAP (College of American Pathologists) accredited and CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certified. Its strategic location positions Malaysia as a hub for the Asia Pacific region in providing highly specialized central laboratory support in clinical research. Hematogenix Malaysia offers an exclusive scope of services within the region,that are often sought for by organizations conducting clinical trials. Currently the facility is managing at least 10 clinical studies from multinational global pharmaceutical companies and has processed over 800 shipments of biological specimens delivered to their facility in Cyberjaya from study sites across Asia Pacific namely Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia.

During the visit, the Hematogenix team discussed on collaborative efforts with the Ministry of Health (MOH), especially in providing cutting edge diagnostics services to cancer centres as well as in knowledge exchange and training of scientists within the MOH. Its President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Hytham Al-Masri believes Malaysia has the capability and capacity to progress further in cancer research and diagnostics, with the establishment of Hematogenix Malaysia. With almost 40 trained and qualified members within the team, including Pathologists, scientists, bioinformaticians and software developers, the facility has the required infrastructure to run state of the art biomarker testing for cancer research and has the talents to be able to develop in house cancer biomarker assays, some of which has been successfully submitted and approved by the USFDA.
 
Hematogenix is a life- science company which has its facilities across the globe in the US, UK, China and now Malaysia that have been serving the pharmaceutical & biotech industry for clinical research support and diagnostics since 2007. In 2018, the company inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM), for the establishment of a central laboratory based in Malaysia. The first of such in the country, the facility is aimed to attract more global clinical trials into Malaysia, as well as upscale its talent pool of scientists and researchers. This is aligned with the vision of Ministry of Health Malaysia, which aims to increase Malaysia’s visibility and footprint for global studies, especially sponsored clinical research through CRM’s operations. In 2021, CRM completed its Phase 1 Realisation Project which completes the setup of early phase clinical trial ecosystem in the country. With the further establishment of Hematogenix Malaysia, the clinical research support required in facilitating with global clinical trials, especially in early phase drug development, is now made available within the country.

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