MANILA — The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has entered into a partnership with AstraZeneca PLC under which the drugmaker is considering establishing its next clinical research center of excellence in the country.

In a statement on Monday, the DTI said the potential project is part of its push to position the Philippines as a growing life sciences investment hub in Asia.

AstraZeneca has invested more than P3 billion in Philippine clinical trials over the past six years and plans to support broader health ecosystem initiatives, according to the DTI.

"These investments will cover continuing medical education, diagnostics, digital health solutions and innovation for patients in key therapy areas including oncology, biopharmaceuticals and rare disease," the department said.

The pharmaceutical company has operated in the Philippines for more than 50 years and is supporting about 28 ongoing and planned clinical trials. More than 1,000 patients have been enrolled since 2022 across 150 trial sites.

The DTI said it is working to streamline approvals and explore a one-stop shop model for AstraZeneca's partnerships in the Philippines. These include the company's proposed Multi-Stakeholder Health Innovation Hub, which would operate within the Philippine Economic Zone Authority's (PEZA) ecozone framework — a regime the government has long used to attract export-services investors, including IT-BPM operations.

The hub's flagship component, an oncology innovation center, is set to leverage artificial intelligence for early lung cancer detection, expand patient-support systems, strengthen healthcare workforce capabilities, and support evidence-based policymaking.

AstraZeneca is also working with De La Salle University, the Department of Science and Technology, and PEZA to establish a Clinical Trial Centre of Excellence in Manila this year. The DTI said the center will serve as the first of three planned pillars in a broader health ecosystem that will also include a Cancer Command Centre and a Cardio-Renal-Metabolic Centre. This year's Manila launch, followed by the two planned centers, sets the near-term markers for how the broader ecosystem develops.

Trade Secretary Maria Cristina A. Roque said the agency views the clinical research industry as a growth driver for the Philippines.

"Just as we built the IT-BPM (information technology-business process management) industry from call centers into a globally competitive knowledge-services sector, we see clinical research and health information management as the Philippines' next growth industry," she was quoted as saying.

The government's interest in a successor industry is grounded in economics: the Philippines has been turning to other growth industries to reduce its dependence on IT-BPM, as artificial intelligence slows job growth in that sector. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, BusinessWorld