Wellmarker Bio to target first-in-class drugs for exports: CEO

Wellmarker Bio CEO Jin Dong-hoon

South Korean cancer drug developer Wellmarker Bio chose first-in-class drugs as a top priority and intends to continue to engage in the development of new drugs to secure global competitiveness, according to Chief Executive Officer Jin Dong-hoon.

“As a small company with limited funds and manpower, we have been thinking about what to choose to boost our competitiveness not only at home but also abroad, even before the company was founded,” Jin said in a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper. “Our answer is first-in-class (drugs).”

Novel drugs are broadly divided into first-in-class, which are the world’s first drugs with a new action mechanism and best-in-class, which are drugs that are the best among therapies with the same mechanism but do not have a new mechanism.

Jin noted that for best-in-class drugs, exporting the technology generally requires Phase 2 clinical trials and above.

“In terms of cost and time, first-in-class, where the technology can potentially be exported after Phase 1 trials are complete, is a much more strategic choice for bio ventures like Wellmarker Bio.

Founded in 2016 after being spun off from Seoul Asan Medical Center, Wellmarker Bio is developing innovative anticancer drugs based on biomarkers that can predict the response to the treatment. Since its Series A funding in 2018, the company has attracted over 67 billion won ($51 million) in investments to date.

Wellmarker Bio is developing a total of eight pipelines, including small molecules, antibodies, and protein-protein interaction inhibitors. Of the pipelines, WM-A1-3389, an immune anticancer drug candidate for non-small cell lung cancer, and WM-S1-030, a targeted therapy for colorectal cancer, are the furthest along.

WM-S1-030 is currently undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials in Australia and Korea and is expected to complete Phase 1 about the second quarter of 2025.

WM-A1-3389, which received approval for Phase 1a and 1b investigational new drug (IND) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in the second quarter of 2023, is currently verifying the clinical efficacy of the treatment response biomarker and is scheduled to be administered to patients for the first time in February 2024.

Wellmarker Bio is also aiming to debut on the Kosdaq market.

“After passing the technical evaluation in December 2023, we can apply for preliminary listing review within a six-month period,” Jin said. “Looking at our timetable, we plan to apply for preliminary listing review around March or April 2024.”