NewgLab Pharma "KAT, an anti-metastatic cancer drug, proves effective against pancreatic cancer following liver cancer"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Newgelab Pharma announced on the 17th that its U.S. subsidiary, Newgelab Pharma, which is developing an anti-metastatic cancer drug, participated in the annual conference of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and revealed the pancreatic cancer inhibitory effects of ‘KAT’. Newgelab Pharma recently presented joint research conducted with the University of Maryland at the AACR held in New Orleans, USA.

At the AACR presentation, Newgelab Pharma explained that the anti-metastatic cancer drug KAT (Ko Anti-cancer Technology) is also effective against pancreatic cancer. In pancreatic cancer animal experiments, Newgelab Pharma confirmed that the test group using 10mg of ‘3-BP (3-Bromopyruvate)’, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of KAT, showed about 40% tumor growth inhibition compared to the control group. They verified that combining 3-BP with radiation therapy on pancreatic cancer cells produces a synergistic effect.

Furthermore, Newgelab Pharma also presented the efficacy of effectively suppressing the expression of active cytokines ‘TGF-B1’ and ‘Hexokinase-2 (HK-2)’, which play a critical role in cancer cell proliferation.

At the AACR poster presentation, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine attended and introduced the mechanism and results of KAT’s pancreatic cancer treatment, as well as successful preclinical cases for multiple cancer types. Although Newgelab Pharma did not operate an offline booth at the conference, it received significant attention through the poster presentation.

Following approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year, Newgelab Pharma also received approval from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for clinical phases 1+2A of the liver cancer treatment KAT. Clinical trials are being conducted mainly at major hospitals in both countries, including Mayo Clinic and Seoul National University Hospital. The domestic clinical trials of KAT are conducted in an open-label manner, identical to those in the U.S., allowing observation of efficacy data during the clinical process.

KAT is a liver cancer treatment whose efficacy has been sufficiently verified through numerous preclinical trials and emergency clinical treatment cases. Newgelab Pharma is accelerating the commercialization of KAT through multinational clinical trials, and in the case of liver cancer, it has been designated as an Orphan Drug (ODD) by the U.S. FDA, enabling rapid commercialization through conditional approval after phase 2 completion.

A Newgelab Pharma official stated, “The most significant feature of KAT’s mechanism is that it can be applied uniformly to all cancers, not only liver cancer currently under development,” adding, “It is very meaningful that this fact was demonstrated through the pancreatic cancer model presentation at this AACR.”

He continued, “We will make every effort to ensure that the ongoing liver cancer clinical trials of KAT in both the U.S. and Korea produce meaningful results at an early stage.”