Chong Kun Dang, ‘CKD-702’ development agreement with the National New Drug Development Project… Total amount of support around KRW 35 billion

Chong Kun Dang announced on the 3rd that it had signed an R&D agreement with the National New Drug Development Agency for the lung cancer-targeted anticancer dual antibody biologic ‘CKD-702’.

According to this agreement, Chong Kun Dang will receive support for the domestic phase 1 clinical trial of CKD-702 from the National New Drug Development Project. Chong Kun Dang said that it would not disclose the size of the research funding support. According to the ‘Integrated Notice and Guide for New Support Targets for the National New Drug Development Project (New Drug Clinical Development) in 2021’ posted on the Health and Medical Technology Comprehensive Information System (No. It is stated that a large-scale research grant is supported. The application period is from August 1, 2021 to July 30, 2023.

CKD-702 is an anticancer doublet antibody that simultaneously inhibits hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-Met) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which are essential for solid cancer growth. It is a new biopharmaceutical drug with a new mechanism to treat cancer by binding to each receptor, blocking the cancer cell proliferation signal and reducing the number of receptors.

Chong Kun Dang confirmed its excellent anticancer effect in an animal test for non-small cell lung cancer resistant to targeted anticancer drugs, and demonstrated its safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic properties in this year’s domestic phase 1 clinical part 1. It plans to conduct domestic phase 1 and part 2 clinical trials for patients with non-small cell lung cancer and enter global phase 1/2 clinical trials in 2023. They are also planning to conduct research to expand the scope of application to various cancers with high unmet demand by confirming the therapeutic effect of the selected patients based on biomarkers. It received support from the National New Drug Development Project,” he said.

The national new drug development project is a cross-ministerial national R&D project that supports the entire stage of new drug development with pharmaceutical companies and academia, research, and bottle open innovation strategies. It is a large-scale national support project that will invest KRW 2.2 trillion over the next 20 years from this year, and it has been awarded 4 new drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and 60 global technology transfers worth more than KRW 20 billion. With the goal of discovering effective and leading substances and candidate substances, we support non-clinical and clinical phase 1 and 2 new drug development tasks.

Reporter Min-beom Kim, Donga.com mbkim@donga.com