[Featured Stock] Hyundai Bio's Painless Anticancer Drug Also Expected to Treat COVID-19 and AIDS... Pipeline Value Rises

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] As expectations grow that a less toxic anticancer drug can treat the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), Hyundai Bio's stock price is also on the rise. Although anticancer drugs are effective in treating viral diseases, there have been difficulties in developing them as treatments due to significant side effects. Polytaxel, a pain-free anticancer drug developed by CNPharm, the major shareholder of Hyundai Bio, has shown experimental results indicating that it has lower toxicity than existing anticancer drugs and could potentially be developed as a COVID-19 treatment.

As of 10:41 AM on the 18th, Hyundai Bio's stock was trading at 14,500 KRW, up 20.33% (2,450 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.

Hyundai Bio announced on the 16th that it confirmed Polytaxel can also be used as a COVID-19 treatment through cytotoxicity tests recently conducted by an official non-clinical contract research organization (CRO). The company expects a revolutionary change in treating viral diseases if anticancer drugs can be used not only for various cancers but also for viral disease treatments.

CNPharm introduced that in cell experiments, a pre-stage to animal efficacy tests for COVID-19 treatment development, Polytaxel showed up to 23 times lower toxicity than docetaxel, an existing cancer treatment drug, at the same cell viability level. It was confirmed that a drug concentration 23 times higher than docetaxel can be administered during treatment for COVID-19 and other diseases.

Previous studies have shown that anticancer drugs, including docetaxel, are effective against viral diseases. However, due to the fatal toxicity of anticancer drugs to humans, drug repositioning to use them as treatments for other diseases has not yet been realized.

CNPharm revealed at the Global Bio Conference last June that Polytaxel, the first pain-free anticancer new drug of the 'Noel Anticancer Therapy,' administered to animals within the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) where drug toxicity does not manifest in the body, reduced tumor size by 90.4%, demonstrating higher safety and anticancer efficacy compared to docetaxel, which showed a 55.5% tumor reduction rate.

In cell experiments, the IC50 (drug concentration at which 50% of cells survive) was 0.016 micromolar (uM) for docetaxel, whereas Polytaxel showed 0.363 micromolar, 23 times higher, further proving its low toxicity. CNPharm explained that this could significantly enhance treatment effects not only for various cancers but also for viral diseases.

Polytaxel, which combines docetaxel with a polymeric carrier, enters microtubules?known as the intracellular entry and exit pathways for viruses?and fundamentally blocks viral entry and release from cells, thereby inhibiting viral infection and proliferation. It is expected to be used to treat COVID-19 as well as viral diseases such as AIDS, SARS, and MERS.

In addition to docetaxel, CNPharm is conducting cell experiments to use its new drug candidate, Polyplatin, a platinum-based anticancer drug widely used as an anticancer agent, as a viral treatment. CNPharm plans to proceed with the Investigational New Drug (IND) application process for global clinical trials of Polytaxel, a new drug candidate for pancreatic cancer and COVID-19 treatment, jointly with its affiliate Hyundai Bio by the end of the year. CNPharm is also conducting efficacy and toxicity comparative experiments between Polytaxel and the currently marketed pancreatic cancer treatment drug, Nab-paclitaxel.