K-bio names draw limelight on progress in precision therapies in lung cancer forum

Korean biopharmaceutical companies gained raving responses from scientists and researchers for their promising study results with new precision therapies that target EGFR-mutated cancer cells during the IASLC 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer, which kicked off on Aug. 5 in Vienna, Austria.

EGFR or epidermal growth factor receptor is a protein on cells that helps them grow. It is identified as being highly expressed in cancer cells including lung cancer, a leading cause of cancer death in Korea. A mutation in the EGFR gene can make it grow too much, which can cause cancer and resistance to existing EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. About 40 percent of lung cancer patients in Asia, including Korea, develop lung cancer due to mutations in the EGFR gene.

Some Korean biopharmas grabbed attention for their impressive clinical trial results with advanced EGFR-targeted cancer drugs that have overcome treatment resistance.

Audience was pack at Yuhan Corp.¡¯s presentation on the results of first-line monotherapy with Leclaza (lazertinib mesylate monohydrate). All seats were full in a session on overcoming resistance to existing EGFR targeted therapies, which was held in the largest conference room there, where two Korean biotech firms, Bridge Biotherapeutics and J INTS BIO, made a presentation.

[Photo by IASLC 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer,]

During the conference, Yuhan presented the potential of Leclaza as a single first-line therapy for lung cancer. In its Phase 1/2 trials, median progression-free survival was 24.6 months in 43 treatment-naïve patients treated with Leclaza alone in the first-line setting. The figure is 5.7 months longer than 18.9 months with AstraZeneca¡¯s Tagrisso, the best-selling third-generation targeted cancer drug.

Bridge Biotherapeutics unveiled interim results of a Phase 1 clinical trial of BBT-176, its fourth-generation EGFR-targeted cancer drug, at the conference. The fourth-generation version is being developed for patients whose cancer recurs due to resistance to third-generation therapies such as Tagrisso or Leclaza. No company in the world has yet succeeded in commercializing a fourth-generation EGFR-targeted cancer drug.

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