Canary Bio Appoints Thomas Woo, Former OncoQuest VP, as Head of U.S. Corporation

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Canaria Bio announced on the 28th that it has recruited Thomas Woo, former Vice President of OncoQuest, as the head of its U.S. subsidiary.

Thomas Woo earned a master's degree from the University of Alberta and has accumulated 28 years of experience across all areas of new drug development. Canaria Bio is currently developing five immuno-oncology drug pipelines transferred from OncoQuest, among which Oregovomab is undergoing global Phase 3 clinical trials.

Since Thomas Woo has been involved in the development of Oregovomab from the beginning at AltaRex, where Oregovomab was first developed, he is considered the ideal candidate to complete the global Phase 3 clinical trials of Oregovomab.

The global Phase 3 clinical trials of Oregovomab are being conducted at 124 clinical sites across 13 countries worldwide. Clinical trials are underway in 67 sites in the U.S., as well as in Europe, South America, and Asia. In South Korea, Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, Yonsei Severance Hospital, Seoul Asan Hospital, Catholic University Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, Korea University Anam Hospital, National Cancer Center, and Seoul National University Hospital are participating in the global Phase 3 clinical trials. The company plans to complete patient recruitment for the Phase 3 trials by the end of 2022 and announce interim results in 2023.

Oregovomab works by binding to the CA-125 antigen, which is overexpressed in ovarian cancer, enabling T cells to attack cancer cells. In Phase 2 clinical trials, progression-free survival increased by 30 months compared to the control group, reaching 42 months. Considering that global blockbuster immuno-oncology drugs generating trillion-won sales in the market typically extend progression-free survival by about 3 to 5 months, this is a very encouraging result.

If developed as planned, Oregovomab is a pipeline expected to generate trillion-won profits. The global market research firm Evaluate Pharma has estimated that Oregovomab could achieve annual sales of 7 trillion won.

Canaria Bio recently successfully acquired Hyundai Feed, a KOSDAQ-listed company. Canaria Bio also announced plans to transfer Oregovomab to Hyundai Feed to continue its development.

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