HK Innoen Presents Preclinical Study of Lung Cancer Drug at American Association for Cancer Research

HK Innoen announced on the 11th that it presented the preclinical research results of IN-119873, a lung cancer treatment under development, in a poster session at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 held on the 8th (local time) in San Diego, California, USA.

At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 held in San Diego, California, USA, the poster presentation of HK Innoen's lung cancer treatment IN-119873 [Photo by HK Innoen]

IN-119873 is a next-generation allosteric epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) candidate being developed as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. In the research results presented by HK Innoen this time, IN-119873 showed excellent efficacy against major drug-resistant EGFR resistance mutations, including the L858R mutation, T790M and C797S double mutations, or triple mutations. It also demonstrated outstanding efficacy in brain metastasis models.

Cancer cells mutate in various ways to evade attacks from the patient's immune system. EGFR mutations are representative in lung cancer. Up to 15% of Western lung cancer patients and about 40% of Asian patients have been found to have EGFR mutations. Recently, many targeted anticancer drugs that find and kill such mutated cancer cells have been developed, but cancer cells also develop resistance to drugs or create new mutations to evade them. IN-119873 showed excellent efficacy against these major drug-resistant mutations.

Additionally, when combined with osimertinib, a third-generation EGFR-TKI, IN-119873 showed even stronger binding affinity to EGFR mutations. It is expected to minimize the side effects of existing EGFR-TKIs as it has almost no inhibitory effect on normal EGFR. In particular, half of the patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer have the EGFR L858R mutation, which is known to show low efficacy when treated with osimertinib. Therefore, the combination therapy of IN-119873 and osimertinib is expected to reduce side effects and complement efficacy.

Bongtae Kim, Head of New Drug Research at HK Innoen (Executive Director), said, “IN-119873 has completed preclinical studies and aims to apply for a clinical phase 1 trial plan (IND) within this year,” adding, “It is expected to provide a new treatment option for patients who show limitations with standard treatments for non-small cell lung cancer.”