Three pharmaceutical powerhouses have united to create a “virtual” company that will research cancer treatments for Asians.

The Asian Cancer Research Group is backed by Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer, and plans to compile a database of 2,000 tissue samples collected from Asian patients with lung or stomach cancer. Both forms of cancer are particularly prevalent in the region, and Asian patients have already shown genetic differences in how they respond to lung cancer drugs. The samples are to be collected over the next two years and annotated with clinical information. Results will be shared openly with outside researchers, the companies said.

The project highlights several trends in the pharmaceutical industry: a race to tap into the growth in emerging markets, such as China; an increasing focus on genetically-targeted therapies; and a sudden willingness to hold hands and play nice with one another when it comes to early-stage research, in hopes of accelerating the discovery of new drug targets. (‘See GlaxoSmithKline goes public with malaria data’ for another example of the latter.)

But at this point we have little sense of just how committed the companies are to their Asian Cancer Research Group – the best estimate comes from the FT’s shocking revelation that the project will cost “several millions of dollars a year”.