JW Pharmaceutical (CEO Shin Young-seop) announced on the 25th that its subsidiary, C&C Research Laboratories, had been selected for the '2024 1st Korea Drug Development Project(KDDP) for Building New Drug R&D Ecosystems'. This initiative aims to develop treatments for refractory and resistant prostate cancer.
The KDDP is a pan-governmental R&D initiative launched to enhance the global competitiveness of South Korea's pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Since 2021, the Korea Drug Development Foundation (KDDF) has supported the full cycle of new drug development for ten years. The goals include strengthening the domestic R&D ecosystem, producing globally applicable results, and achieving public health benefits.
Over the next two years, the foundation will provide research funding to C&C Research Laboratories to optimize a lead compound that directly inhibits XBP1s and develop an oral First-in-Class innovative anti-cancer drug candidate.
XBP1s is a protein that is highly expressed in various solid tumors. Its excessive expression plays a crucial role in the proliferation of cancer cells. Specifically, XBP1s enhance gene activity related to cancer cell survival, impede the efficacy of standard treatments, and interfere with the immune response against cancer, allowing the cells to evade immune attacks.
The lead compound selected for this project was identified using C&C's proprietary data science platform, 'CLOVER,' which integrates chemical and biological informatics big data with AI and deep learning technologies.
This lead compound has shown excellent anti-cancer effects by directly binding to and inhibiting the XBP1s protein in cell experiments and inhibiting tumor formation. Compared to control groups, the compound demonstrated superior anti-tumor efficacy in drug response measurements conducted on prostate cancer animal models.
C&C Research Laboratories plans to optimize the structure of the XBP1s-targeted lead compound and derive a preclinical new drug candidate by 2025.
An official, JW Pharmaceutical commented, "Prostate cancer, the second most common cancer in men, has a high demand for new mechanism-based innovative drugs due to resistance and non-responsiveness to the primary standard treatment of hormone therapy. We aim to develop the XBP1s-targeted lead compound into an innovative anti-cancer drug that can overcome the limitations of existing treatments not only for prostate cancer but also for various solid tumors."
The link to the Korean version of this article is as follows.
▷JW중외제약, C&C신약연구소 ‘전립선암 치료제’ 국가신약개발사업 선정
By_BK Min, KDFN
kdf@kdfnews.com
Source_ⓒJW Pharma
