Pinobio Signs Clinical Joint Development Agreement for Blood Cancer Treatment with Aston Science

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Pinobio recently announced on the 21st that it has signed a domestic clinical co-development agreement for the blood cancer treatment drug (NTX-301) with the new drug clinical development biotech Aston Science.

Founded in 2017, Pinobio is an innovative new drug specialized bio company focusing on targeted anticancer drugs and glaucoma treatments. In February this year, it received approval for the Phase 1 clinical trial of the blood cancer treatment NTX-301 in the United States. Patient dosing is planned to begin in the second half of the year. This agreement is an additional clinical development project for the global clinical trials of anticancer drugs that Pinobio is currently pursuing in the US and Australia.

Aston Science was established in 2018, centered on new drug R&D personnel from big pharma companies such as MSD and SK Biopharm. Based on an open innovation new drug R&D business model, it is conducting various non-clinical and clinical developments for tumors, epilepsy, and geriatric diseases.

In addition to the blood cancer treatment, Pinobio is currently conducting Phase 1b/2 clinical trials in the US for the solid tumor treatment NTX-303. NTX-303 completed a Phase 1a clinical trial last year as a researcher-initiated trial by the US National Cancer Institute targeting various solid tumor patients. As a result, safety and excellent drug efficacy have been verified. The company plans to promote combination clinical trials in Australia next year targeting ovarian and bladder cancer patients to expand the clinical development of NTX-303.

Pinobio will apply two companion diagnostic biomarkers discovered based on AI technologies such as big data and machine learning to this joint development. This is expected to increase the commercialization potential of new drugs in the future. Biomarkers are marker technologies that identify which patients with certain characteristics will respond effectively to specific treatments. By predicting treatment responses to the drug, it can increase the success rate of clinical trials, which require enormous costs and time, making it a very important technology in targeted anticancer drug R&D.

Jung Dooyoung, CEO of Pinobio, said, “The recent trend in anticancer drug development is to rapidly develop excellent new drug candidates and then collaborate with partners who have clinical development expertise to secure good clinical data. Aston Science is a partner with optimized experience and infrastructure for anticancer clinical development, so we expect the success potential of our NTX-301 and 303 to greatly increase.”

Shin Heonwoo, Vice President (Head of Business Development) of Aston Science, said, “We are pleased to jointly conduct clinical development of NTX-301, a promising targeted anticancer drug candidate. NTX-301 has already accumulated superior non-clinical data compared to competing drugs, and its safety for human dosing has been verified, so now optimized clinical development strategy and rapid progress are crucial. By utilizing expertise in new drug clinical development, we hope to successfully conduct clinical trials of NTX-301 and help patients suffering from cancer.”

Meanwhile, in addition to NTX-301 and 303, Pinobio completed the domestic Phase 1 clinical trial application for the glaucoma eye drop treatment NTX-101 in May and expects to start the Phase 1 trial in the second half of this year. The company has also secured its own ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugate) technology and is promoting the commercialization of the ADC platform business. Targeting an IPO in the second half of 2021, it recently selected NH Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities as joint lead managers and is reviewing new investments to conduct multiple domestic and international clinical developments.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.