TOKYO, July 20, 2020 -- Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 4519) announced a new partnership with City Cancer Challenge Foundation (C/Can) to implement a project focused on improving the quality of patient-centered cancer care through multidisciplinary teams in the city of Yangon, Myanmar.

Chugai places “strengthening sustainable platforms” as one of the key strategies in its mid-term business plan IBI 21. Access to healthcare is one of the six target areas in this strategy. The new partnership aims to improve access to quality cancer care in Yangon. This is the second initiative Chugai starts this year in Southeast Asia involving the promotion of multidisciplinary team care, which Chugai has long engaged in as a leading company in the oncology field in Japan.

C/Can and Chugai will be contributing to improvements in the quality of care through a series of capacity building activities for local healthcare professionals to introduce, disseminate and solidify a multidisciplinary and evidence-based clinical decision-making approach for selected types of cancers, prioritized by the situation analysis conducted in the city. The project is expected to accommodate approximately 400 healthcare professionals treating cancer patients in Yangon over the next three years, and prompt the evolution towards a patient-centered approach.

C/Can is a city-based partnership initiative that aims to improve access to quality cancer care in countries around the world by transforming the way stakeholders from the public and private sectors collectively design, plan, and implement cancer solutions. C/Can has been working with the city of Yangon since July 2017, and with the support of C/Can, Yangon Executive and Technical Committees have conducted a comprehensive assessment of cancer care capacity and needs in the city.

“Yangon City identified the lack of a multidisciplinary approach and the absence of clinical management guidelines adapted to the available resources as major challenges to providing quality cancer care. This partnership with Chugai will ensure that the efforts by local stakeholders to develop quality guidelines and protocols are now translated to tangible positive outcomes for cancer patients by transforming the way cancer care is delivered in Yangon,” explained Dr. Susan Henshall, C/Can CEO.

“Chugai aims to utilize its strength, technology, or specialty in its global health activities. We are also focused on helping the sustainable improvement of healthcare mainly in low- and middle-income countries,” said Keiji Kono, Senior Vice President in charge of External Affairs Dept. and Global Health Policy. “Chugai works on realizing patient-centered sustainable healthcare. We are very excited to support a project that aims at patient-centered quality cancer treatment and care in Yangon through the partnership with C/Can. We will continue to prioritize local needs and work towards sustainable improvement of access to healthcare utilizing our strengths.”

About quality cancer care
Quality cancer care is complex and highly dependent on the well-functioning of organizational structures, such as multidisciplinary teams, that enable each provider to add value to the care of the patient at a specific point in time. Each failure in communication between the various care providers can result in delayed treatment planning, reduced therapy effectiveness, unnecessary duplication of tests, misallocation of resources, incomplete follow-up, and reduced patient quality of life.

About City Cancer Challenge Foundation
City Cancer Challenge Foundation (C/Can) supports cities around the world as they work to improve access to equitable, quality cancer care. C/Can leads a city-based partnership initiative that aims to improve access to quality cancer care in cities around the world by transforming the way stakeholders from the public and private sectors collectively design, plan, and implement cancer solutions. The approach is built on the core principle that cities can drive impact at national level by crafting data-driven solutions with the support of a network of global, regional, and local partners that reflect an understanding of the unique local context. C/Can was launched by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) at the 2017 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. It was established as a standalone Swiss foundation in January 2019.

About Chugai
Chugai Pharmaceutical is one of Japan’s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies with strengths in biotechnology products. Chugai, based in Tokyo, specializes in prescription pharmaceuticals and is listed on the 1st section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As an important member of the Roche Group, Chugai is actively involved in R&D activities in Japan and abroad. Specifically, Chugai is working to develop innovative products which may satisfy the unmet medical needs.
Additional information is available at https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/.