Participation of Yuhan, Genom and Company, Lunit, Legochem, etc.
Many in the 'preclinical' stage but increasing potential for technology export
Domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies are making a full-scale appearance at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the earliest of the 'world's top three cancer conferences.' While Korean companies mainly present early-stage new drug candidates, recent enthusiasm in the global pharmaceutical industry for securing early-stage pipelines means that investment attraction and technology export achievements can be sufficiently expected.
The AACR, held from the 5th to the 10th of next month (local time) in San Diego, USA, is considered one of the world's top three cancer conferences alongside the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). It is the earliest among the three each year, allowing insights into the cancer-related research and development trends for that year.
This conference will be attended by domestic companies such as Yuhan Corporation, Genome & Company, Lunit, LegoChem Biosciences, SillaJen, Y-Biologics, Pharos iBio, and others. This year, many companies are bringing research and development achievements through collaboration such as open innovation.
Yuhan Corporation will present early research results of two immuno-oncology drugs under development by introducing technology from domestic companies ABL Bio and ImmunOncia, respectively. The immuno-oncology drug (development code YH32367) developed in partnership with ABL Bio targets mutations in both HER2 and 4-1BB proteins as a cancer treatment. It is aimed at patients who show resistance to existing treatments targeting only HER2. The new drug candidate (YH41723) developed in collaboration with ImmunOncia activates the function of T cells, which attack cancer cells, by dual activation of human immunity. The former is currently in global Phase 1 clinical trials, and the latter aims to start clinical trials next year.
Lunit and Genome & Company will present seven and four research results respectively, two of which were conducted jointly. Recently, the global immuno-oncology market has been dominated by drugs that inhibit the PD-1 protein, but about 80% of target patients do not respond to treatment, which is a limitation. Genome & Company discovered that when the PD-1 protein and the contactin-4 protein are overexpressed simultaneously, PD-1 drug efficacy is lost, and based on this, developed a new drug candidate (GENA-104). At this conference, they will present results of a study conducted with Lunit on how much contactin-4 protein expression affects drug efficacy.
LegoChem Biosciences, which possesses technology related to antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) leading the latest cancer drug trends, will attend the conference with five pipelines. The most notable is an ADC (development code LCB02A) targeting specific proteins appearing on the surface of cancer cells such as gastric and pancreatic cancers. ADCs operate like guided missiles that precisely target specific targets, and global big pharma companies such as AstraZeneca, MSD, and Merck are competing to secure this technology.
The presentations by domestic companies at this conference mainly consist of 'preclinical' or early-stage data, as human clinical trials have not yet begun. Seonkyung Lee, a researcher at IBK Investment & Securities, said, "All pipelines that LegoChem Biosciences previously licensed out were contracted at the non-clinical stage," and predicted that even early-stage domestic technologies introduced at this conference can attract sufficient interest. In fact, on the 6th, domestic bio-venture Nexi signed a technology export deal for a next-generation immuno-oncology drug (NXI-101) at the preclinical stage with Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical, showing that there are already numerous cases of global technology transactions for early-stage pipelines of domestic biotech companies.
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