Is It Possible to Conquer the "Worst Cancer" Pancreatic Cancer... Active Development of New Drugs

5-Year Survival Rate Only About 14%
Demand for Effective Treatment Development Increases
Industry Accelerates with FDA Orphan Drug Designation and Clinical Trials Initiation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Pancreatic cancer, along with glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor, is known as one of the "worst cancers." This is because the pancreas is located deep within the body, and early symptoms are difficult to detect, leading to diagnosis often only after the disease has significantly progressed, resulting in missed treatment opportunities. Although the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer has improved compared to the past, it remains only about 14%.

Given the significant unmet medical needs, efforts to develop effective new drugs continue. In particular, domestic pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Korea have been making meaningful progress, such as obtaining orphan drug designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and initiating clinical trials. Attention is focused on how competitive Korean companies can be in the global pancreatic cancer treatment market.

Increasing Pancreatic Cancer Patients... Still Insufficient Treatment Methods

According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service on the 23rd, the number of pancreatic cancer patients in Korea increased by about 35% over five years, from 17,702 in 2017 to 23,865 last year. The medical community attributes this to a combination of factors including population aging, increased awareness due to high-profile deaths from pancreatic cancer, and advances in screening. Pancreatic cancer mainly occurs in men over their 50s, with smoking, chronic pancreatitis, and genetic factors considered risk factors, although the exact cause remains unclear.

Treatment for pancreatic cancer includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, but considering the mortality rate, these are not regarded as highly effective. This large unmet medical need has led to active new drug development. However, there have been no significant achievements so far. Since 2003, 174 candidate substances have been designated as orphan drugs for the indication of pancreatic cancer by the FDA, but only three have actually been approved. This is why pancreatic cancer remains notorious as one of the worst cancers despite all-out efforts in modern medicine.

'Impenetrable Fortress' Challenged by Korean Bio Industry

Korean pharmaceutical and biotech industries have also thrown their hats into the ring for global pancreatic cancer drug development. In recent years, notable new pipelines have emerged, attracting attention overseas as well. Many companies have already received FDA orphan drug designations, completed preclinical studies, and entered full-scale clinical trials. The fastest new drug candidate in domestic clinical trials is GC Cell’s ‘ImmunCell-LC.’ ImmunCell-LC, which was already approved as a liver cancer chemotherapy drug in 2007, entered phase 3 clinical trials in Korea last September. The trial evaluates efficacy and safety by dividing patients into a standard treatment group receiving gemcitabine alone and a combination treatment group receiving ImmunCell-LC plus gemcitabine.

In global clinical trials, CrystalGenomics’ ‘Ivaltinostat’ is drawing attention. Ivaltinostat received approval for U.S. phase 1b/2 clinical trials and completed first patient dosing in August, progressing smoothly. Previously, in a phase 2 clinical trial at Severance Hospital involving 24 patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer who had not received prior treatment, Ivaltinostat showed a disease control rate (DCR) of 93.8%, objective response rate (ORR) of 25%, and median overall survival (mOS) of 10.8 months.

MedPacto recently attracted attention by presenting interim data from a phase 1b clinical trial of the combination therapy of ‘Becatacitinib’ and Folfox at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The combination therapy showed an ORR of 23.1% and mOS of 9.3 months, confirming treatment efficacy compared to existing therapies. Additionally, Onconic Therapeutics’ dual-inhibitor targeted anticancer drug candidate ‘JPI-547’ received approval for phase 1b clinical trials, and HanAll Biopharma’s U.S. affiliate Immunomet Therapeutics completed first patient dosing in the U.S. phase 1b trial of ‘IM156.’

Demand for pancreatic cancer treatments is expected to continue growing. According to the U.S. market research firm Global Monitor, the pancreatic cancer treatment market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 5.7%, reaching $2.7 billion (approximately 3.6 trillion KRW) by 2027. Notably, many of the pancreatic cancer drug candidates developed by domestic companies are also being developed for application to other cancers, indicating strong growth potential, according to industry evaluations. An industry insider said, “Securing objective data during clinical trials is paramount. If we can establish ‘pharmaceutical sovereignty’ in pancreatic cancer, where treatment development is challenging, it would be highly significant.”

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