Equity in Healthcare: Turning Innovation into Impact from Southeast Asia
Born from personal experience and backed by scientific excellence, MYmAb Biologics is leading a quiet revolution in cancer research—anchored in Malaysia, aiming for the world.
Southeast Asia is home to nearly 700 million people, yet remains significantly underrepresented in global cancer research and clinical trials. The region is facing a rapid rise in cancer incidence, reporting 1.15 million new cases and 716,000 deaths in 2022 alone—reflecting a mortality rate of nearly 60%, well above the global average. Yet access to targeted therapies, precision diagnostics, and clinical infrastructure remains limited. Despite this, fewer than 10% of clinical trials include Southeast Asian populations, and most cancer data is based on Western cohorts, leaving critical gaps in both science and care.
It was this imbalance, made painfully personal, that drove Dr. Jia Xin Chua to found MYmAb Biologics. After over a decade conducting cancer immunotherapy research in the UK, Dr. Chua returned to Malaysia—not just as a scientist, but as a sister. Her sibling’s battle with cancer, and the lack of access to advanced treatment at home, became a turning point. “I came home with one goal,” she says. “To make science work for Southeast Asia.”
Backed by scientific expertise and a mission rooted in equity, MYmAb Biologics is now building world-class tools for cancer discovery and therapy. The company operates two proprietary platforms: ArrayZeal™ and GlykoGuard™.
ArrayZeal™ is a curated tissue microarray (TMA) platform designed to make cancer research more inclusive and efficient. Each TMA contains up to 150 Southeast Asian tumor specimens, allowing scientists worldwide to study population-specific patterns of cancer biology in a more time- and cost-effective manner. This helps close the gap in global data and supports more representative biomedical discoveries.
GlykoGuard™ is MYmAb’s novel antibody development platform, focused on creating monoclonal antibodies that recognize cancer-associated glycans—abnormal sugar patterns often found on the surface of aggressive or late-stage tumors. By targeting these glycan signatures, GlykoGuard™ opens new possibilities for precision therapies and positions MYmAb to compete on the global stage, while striving to make future treatments more affordable for local patients.
For Dr. Chua, the science is always personal. “If we can develop even one more treatment option, or give one more patient hope, then we’re doing what we set out to do.”
MYmAb is proving that innovation can come from underrepresented regions—and that scientific excellence doesn’t have to be imported. “We’re building something world-class, right here at home,” says Dr. Chua
With early support from Malaysian agencies such as the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance, MYmAb is now looking outward—scaling its platforms, building global partnerships, and continuing its mission to make cancer innovation truly inclusive.
Because where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live.
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