Korea’s biotechs to share latest findings on cancer treatment at AACR

[Image captured from AACR homepage]

A slew of Korea’s pharmaceutical and biotech companies are set to participate in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, which is considered one of the top three cancer conferences in the world.

AACR is an annual scientific meeting where pharmaceutical and biotech companies from 120 countries worldwide come together to share knowledge and research findings related to oncology treatment. This year, the conference will take place from April 14 to 19 in Orlando, Florida.

One of the Korean companies in the scene is Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., which will present seven research results in a poster session. Key medicines include HM97662, a dual inhibitor of EZH1/2 being developed as a solid cancer treatment, HM99462, an SOS1 inhibitor targeting fatal genetic mutations that cause cancer, and an mRNA cancer vaccine.

Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, another Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group company, will present research results on its immunotherapy medicine BH3120. The drug uses a dual-antibody platform called Pentambody that simultaneously binds two different targets. The company plans to apply for clinical trials of BH3120 with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this month.

CJ Bioscience Inc., a pharmaceutical and healthcare subsidiary of CJ CheilJedang Corp., will present preclinical research results of its immunotherapy drug CJRB-101 in poster form. The company used a mouse model with transplanted tissues from a human cancer patient to gather data on the drug’s efficacy and mechanism, and interim results showed that the subjects treated with the drug had smaller tumors compared to the control group.

HLB Co. will announce the results of a new study on its cancer drug rivoceranib. In addition, Jeil Pharmaceutical Co.’s subsidiary Onconic Therapeutics Inc. will present results from two nonclinical studies on its dual-targeting cancer drug nesuparib, while TiumBio Co. will present results from its investigative immuno-oncology drug TU2218.

Other Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies participating in the conference include Medpacto Inc., AbClon Inc., Prestige Biopharma Ltd., NeoImmuneTech Inc. and ABL Bio Inc.

Medical artificial intelligence company Lunit Inc. will release five research abstracts, including the performance verification results of its AI model that predicts mutations in non-small cell lung cancer.