Chabak Vaccine Research Institute Selected for Government Project to Develop Cancer Immunotherapy Using Immune Enhancers

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] Cha Biotech announced on the 5th that its affiliate, Cha Vaccine Research Institute, has been selected as the lead institution for the government project under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 'Core Technology Development Project for the Bio Industry.' The project amount is a total of 4.3 billion KRW.

Cha Vaccine Research Institute, together with Professor Jeon Hong-jae of the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation at Cha University of Medicine and Science, a joint research and development institution, and Lee Byung-seok, head of the Safety Evaluation Research Institute affiliated with the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, will conduct research on "Development of improved pharmaceuticals overcoming the limitations of immune checkpoint inhibitors using next-generation adjuvants."

Cancer cells evade the immune system by exploiting our body's immunity, but immune checkpoint inhibitors reactivate our immune system, which was deceived by cancer cells, thereby enhancing the immune anti-cancer response.

Although immune checkpoint inhibitors are evaluated as superior to conventional anticancer drugs in terms of efficacy and side effects due to their lack of cytotoxicity, their low response rate is pointed out as a limitation. Therefore, combination drugs are used to increase the response rate of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Cha Vaccine Research Institute is developing combination drugs (next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics) that overcome the limitations of immune checkpoint inhibitors by utilizing its independently developed immune adjuvant (L-pampo).

This immune adjuvant is administered into tumors to induce cancer cell death, exposing cancer antigens in the process and creating a highly immunogenic environment optimized for immune checkpoint inhibitors. This improves the response rate of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Experiments on animals confirmed excellent tumor suppression ability in various cancers such as colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and bladder cancer.

Yeom Jeong-seon, CEO of Cha Vaccine Research Institute, said, "Our immune adjuvant is a unique next-generation technology independently developed by domestic researchers, and through the development of immuno-oncology drugs using this technology, we will demonstrate the excellence of domestically produced anticancer treatment technology."