National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) is a non-profit organization established by the Taiwan government in 1996. Among the 10 research units, 8 research institutes and two research centers, the National Institute of Cancer Research (NICR) and the Institute of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research (IBPR) are involved in cancer therapy development. NICR aims to ascertain statistically efficacious new drugs and therapy for locally prevalent cancers through clinical trials. Whiles, IBPR is a fully integrated institute with multi-disciplinary technologies cover major aspects of the drug discovery and development. Such an integrated infrastructure facilitates the new drug development within NHRI. For instance, NICR joined in the pre-clinical and clinical development of a vascular-disrupting, anti-microtubular agent, DPRB104.Besides the intramural collaboration, NICR also plays an important role in helping the new drug development for domestic pharmaceutical companies. Regarding investigator-initiated trials, NICR explored the commercial available, off-labeled agents as well as yet approval agents for treating domestic prevalent cancers.
