Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the technology of Poziotinib, anticancer drug co-developed between the government and a private company to a US anticancer pharmaceutical firm.
Poziotinib is a targeted agent which ‘The system-integrating anticancer drug development project team (headed by Kim In-cheol and launched in June, 2011)’ and Hanmi(President&CEO, Lee Gwan-sun) worked together on and of which technology was transferred to China, August, 2014.
On February 27, Hanmi Pharma. Co., Ltd.(www.hanmipharm.com) decided to conclude a contract of technology transfer with NASDAQ-listed Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, US pharmaceutical company specialized in anticancer drugs.
Under the contract, the license applied on indications like lung and breast cancers for the rest of the world except Korean and China will be granted to Spectrum. This shows that Korean anticancer drug is recognized commercially, the first launch in the global market.
Poziotinib is pan-HER inhibitor targeting HER protein found in various types of cancers, being recognized as globally competitive in recovery of anticancer and tolerance. In particular, it seems that the excellent effect on additional indications like breast cancer in phase Ⅰ clinical test was the opportunity of making its commercial value enhanced.
Currently, six domestic medical institutes like National Cancer Center has been carrying out phase Ⅱ clinical test which will be conducted on those terminal patients with breast cancer in seven domestic medical institutes from March.
Kim In-cheol, head of the project team said, “In three years after the team was launched, the technology of Korean new anticancer drug was exported to the U.S. This shows the validity of this project. Given Korea’s excellence in clinical development, we need to develop many other drugs and conduct clinical tests to transfer the technologies in return for much higher value by taking this as an example.”
“With the cooperation with the project team, we could promote the development of Poziotinib in a more effective way,” said Lee Gwan-soon, Hanmi’s CEO, “By taking this export opportunity, we hope that those patients suffering from lung and breast cancer can be cured with Poziotinib’s innovative medical effect.”
By Lee Jae-seung
