Yuhan, Successful with 'Reclaza' through Open Innovation, Now Focuses on mRNA

Yuhan Yanghang Open Innovation Core, O Se-ung Central Research Director

Lecraza Secures Preclinical Drugs from Oscotec
Leads 1.4 Trillion KRW Big Deal with Janssen

"Success Rate Three Times Higher Than In-house Development"
Next Step: mRNA and Targeted Protein Degradation

Establishes Local Corporations in the US and Australia for Overseas Open Innovation

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] "There is no future without new drug development. We will focus on next-generation technologies such as messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and targeted protein degradation technology."

One of the biggest topics in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry recently is 'open innovation.' This refers to the process of introducing and developing new drug pipelines by collaborating with various entities rather than having a single company handle everything from candidate substance discovery to all development stages. A representative success of open innovation is Yuhan Corporation's non-small cell lung cancer treatment 'Leclaza (Lazertinib).' After Yuhan Corporation acquired the preclinical-stage drug from Oscotec in 2015, it licensed the technology again to Janssen during clinical phases 1 and 2. This mega deal worth 1.4 trillion KRW is now approaching approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this year.

The background of this success lies in Yuhan Corporation's massive investment in research and development (R&D) funds for open innovation since 2015. The key figure at the center of this is Se-woong Oh, head of the Central Research Institute. As the overall R&D chief at Yuhan Corporation leading open innovation, Oh explained, "It was a strategy chosen as the most efficient way to reignite the stagnant new drug development." He added, "We judged that Yuhan Corporation has sufficient personnel and systems necessary for new drug development, especially experience and capabilities in post-preclinical stages," and "Since there is an absolute shortage of development candidate pipelines, this was a strategy to secure them."

Yuhan Corporation's non-small cell lung cancer treatment 'Reclaza Tablets'

Oh cited 'failure avoidance' as the greatest advantage of open innovation. Since substances introduced through open innovation are somewhat pre-selected, it is possible to avoid the risk of failure up to the cooperation stage compared to in-house development. Given the wide variety of basic and foundational technologies for new drug development, open innovation allows for a broader scope of technology and drug exploration, reducing the constant battle with success probabilities throughout the long journey of discovery, preclinical, clinical, and commercialization stages. He elaborated, "In the case of large overseas pharmaceutical companies, the final success rate is reported to be about three times higher than in-house development."

Recently, Yuhan Corporation has been focusing on the mRNA field. Building on mRNA technology, which emerged as a core vaccine technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, they plan to develop related therapeutics. Oh stated, "We are collaborating with domestic and international universities to secure new mRNA technologies with high in vivo stability and expression rates, as well as tissue-targeted lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for effective delivery."

In the synthetic drug field, targeted protein degradation technology was presented as a core technology. This technology treats diseases caused or worsened by damaged or unnecessary proteins in the body by degrading and eliminating these proteins. It opens possibilities for treating Alzheimer's dementia, which is presumed to be caused by amyloid beta or tau proteins in the brain. Oh said, "Starting with joint research and development of Alzheimer's and anti-inflammatory drugs with Uptera, which recently began, we plan to expand proprietary technology acquisition and joint development."

One characteristic of Yuhan Corporation's open innovation is the close relationships with biotechs founded by former employees. GI Innovation (CEO Nam Su-yeon) and I'mNeuron (CEO Kim Han-joo) are representative examples. Both previously served as head of the Central Research Institute and director of business development at Yuhan Corporation, respectively. Oh evaluated, "This model leverages the fast decision-making and execution strengths of biotechs while creating a stable management environment, and Yuhan Corporation secures priority review rights for pipelines to maximize success potential."

They also pursue overseas open innovation. The key is local subsidiaries. Yuhan Corporation is promoting the introduction of overseas technologies and pipelines through local subsidiaries established in the U.S. (Yuhan USA) and Australia (Yuhan ANZ). Oh said, "Although there are no visible results yet, we will discover more opportunities through cooperation with leading local venture capital (VC) firms." He also stated that, in addition to 'inbound open innovation,' where Yuhan Corporation acquires early-stage new drug pipelines, they will simultaneously continue 'outbound innovation,' collaborating with multinational pharmaceutical companies for clinical trials and commercialization.

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