[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] MedPacto announced on the 16th that it has obtained a European patent for a cancer diagnosis method and diagnostic kit using blood.
This patent is related to a method for measuring the expression level of the BAG2 protein present in blood. MedPacto previously obtained a patent in Korea in March last year, followed by patents in Japan and Australia in July.
With this, MedPacto has secured exclusive rights to develop BAG2-based diagnostic kits in these regions. Currently, the company is developing a diagnostic kit that diagnoses cancer metastasis and recurrence using BAG2 as a biomarker, and plans to produce prototypes and conduct clinical research within this year. Additionally, research results are emerging for the antibody therapeutic ‘MA-B2’ targeting BAG2, aiming to enable both diagnosis of cancer recurrence and treatment in the future.
BAG2 is a protein first identified worldwide by MedPacto CEO Sungjin Kim as a mechanism involved in the recurrence and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). CEO Kim confirmed that BAG2 secreted from tumor cells in the blood of breast cancer patients is overexpressed compared to healthy individuals, proving its correlation with cancer occurrence. Furthermore, recent studies have detected BAG2 not only in TNBC but also in the blood of patients with other cancers, raising expectations that the diagnostic kit could be simultaneously applied to various cancer types once commercialized.
A MedPacto official stated, "The cancer diagnostic kit under development diagnoses cancer by measuring the expression level of BAG2 secreted from tumor cells in blood, allowing faster prognosis confirmation than existing cancer diagnostics. With patents registered in Korea, Japan, and Europe, we can target the global market."
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