Introduction of RET gene mutation therapeutic substances
‘Speed’ to develop customized anticancer drugs
HK Innoen (formerly CJ Healthcare), a pharmaceutical company affiliated with Kolmar Korea, has partnered with bio-venture Voronoi to develop global anticancer drugs. It is a promising market that is expected to grow to a scale of 2 trillion won by 2026 for anticancer drugs that the two companies challenge.
HK Innoen announced on the 15th that it recently signed a contract to introduce Voronoi’s anticancer drug candidate’VRN061782′ and plans to enter a global clinical trial next year.
The substance introduced by HK Inoene is a’selective RET kinase inhibitor’. It is a principle that inhibits the activity of the RET gene among kinases, which are signaling substances in the body, when cancer occurs due to mutations or binding with other genes.
Currently, when cancer occurs due to a problem with the RET gene, there is no cure for it. However, while the drug response rate is low, side effects are large. This is the background of the emergence of selective RET inhibitors of anticancer drugs. Currently, only two products have been released: Eli Lilly’s’Selpercatinib’ and Roche’s’Pralcetinib’. The company explained that it is a promising market in that competition is not fierce and demand will increase significantly in the future.
HK Inoen plans to develop a customized target anticancer drug that selectively targets only cancer cells with the same biomarker (biomarker) regardless of the location of the cancer, including lung cancer and thyroid cancer with RET gene fusion or mutation. The goal is to develop a new anticancer drug that has the best anticancer effect and safety.
The company explained that VRN061782 showed a higher response to drug resistance than the existing competitors of the same class in nonclinical animal tests. It added that the safety was also confirmed thanks to selective attacks on specific genes.
HK Innoen is developing more than 20 new drugs based on its own capacity to develop a new drug for gastroesophageal reflux disease,’Kcap Tablet’. The main research fields are cancer, autoimmune disease, and liver disease. Founded in 2015, Voronoi has a platform to quickly and accurately discover selective kinase inhibitors using artificial intelligence (AI). Kang Seok-hee, CEO of HK Innoen, said, “We plan to increase the new drug pipeline with global competitiveness through open innovation (open innovation).”
Reporter Oh Sang-heon [email protected]
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