M'sia sends its medical oncologist to one of the world's top cancer research centres

The Ministry of Health (MOH) through Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM) will be sponsoring Dr. Voon Pei Jye, Medical Oncologist at Sarawak General Hospital, for a Clinical Fellowship Training at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre which is affiliated with the University of Toronto, Canada. Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is one of the top 5 and largest cancer research centres in the world and focuses on all three areas of research: basic, translational and clinical research.

For this batch of fellowship, Dr. Voon will be joining five other oncologists from UK, Spain and Italy at this internationally renowned cancer centre. He will be posted at the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology in Phase 1 for a period of 13 months starting from 1^st September 2020. During his time there, Dr. Voon will be participating in multiple research projects and taking up clinical and teaching duties specific to the Phase 1 program including attendance to clinics and ward rounds.

This sponsorship completes CRM’s Phase 1 Realization Project (P1RP) which was conceived in 2016 and executed in stages to develop Malaysia’s early phase clinical trial capability. This include development of the Phase 1 Clinical Trial Guideline, capability development (ie. Phase 1 scientific panel setup), people development (ie. postgraduate trainings for regulatory officers) and preparation of a Phase 1 trial site (Sarawak General Hospital accredited as a Phase 1 Unit by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority late last year). With Dr. Voon’s acceptance into the University of Toronto Phase 1 Program, Malaysia would be ready for early phase clinical research particularly in First-in-Human trials.

Signing on behalf of the MOH is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, YBhg. Dato’ Seri Dr. Chen Chaw Min and the Chief Executive Officer of CRM, Dr. Akhmal Yusof. The ceremony is witnessed by Health Minister, YB Dato’ Sri Dr. Adham Baba. “The attachment of Dr Voon will move the country a notch further in moving away from late phase to early phase clinical trials, enabling local drug development and providing treatment options for patients who are not responding well to the current standard of care” said Dr Adham.

About Clinical Research Malaysia (CRM)
Established by Malaysian Ministry of Health in 2012, Clinical Research Malaysia exists to advance global health solutions for a brighter, more hopeful future for the people by providing speedy and reliable end-to-end clinical research support for quality studies.

Our innate understanding of the local clinical research landscape with the international standards of operations coupled with fundamental backing of the government ministries provide us an incomparable advantage to work with partners from the nascent stages of development to materialisation of the end product, in order to deliver better treatment and high-skilled job opportunities.