GI Innovation Presents Potential to Overcome Resistance of 'GI-101' Immuno-Oncology Drug at SITC

Innovative drug development company GI Innovation announced on the 6th that it presented a total of four research achievements at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2023) in the United States, including 'GI-101,' which demonstrated the potential to overcome resistance to immuno-oncology drugs, the combination therapy with Keytruda, and the monotherapy 'GI-102.'

At the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in the United States, Jang Myung-ho, CSO of GI Innovation, and Yoon Na-ri, Executive Director (from the back row, left), are explaining GI Innovation's clinical achievements to global experts.
[Photo by GI Innovation]

Founded in 1984, SITC is the largest global society in the field of immuno-oncology, with more than 4,500 members including medical and scientific experts from 63 countries worldwide. At this conference, GI Innovation announced interim results of the GI-101 and Keytruda combination therapy.

In particular, the anticancer activity data in patients resistant to immuno-oncology drugs attracted attention. Immuno-oncology drugs like Keytruda, which has global sales reaching $20.937 billion (approximately 27 trillion KRW), activate exhausted immune cells to attack cancer cells. The problem is that most cancer patients have significantly reduced immune cells due to treatments such as chemotherapy. This is why an increase in immune cells is necessary for immuno-oncology drugs to be effective.

GI Innovation showed that in patients resistant or non-responsive to immuno-oncology drugs, those who received the combination therapy of GI-101 and Keytruda and had an increase of more than 2,000 lymphocytes experienced a significant increase in progression-free survival (PFS). PFS refers to the period during which the cancer does not progress further while receiving the treatment and is considered a key indicator in evaluating the efficacy of anticancer drugs. The company explained, "By increasing immune cells through GI-101, we maximized the effect of Keytruda," adding that "this attracted the interest of many global pharmaceutical companies."

Additionally, GI Innovation disclosed clinical progress of the immuno-oncology drug GI-102, which can be administered both intravenously (IV) and subcutaneously (SC) without formulation changes. The first patient dosing began in Korea in May, and early clinical trials are actively underway at the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic in the United States. The possibility of combination with antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), a new treatment paradigm, was also discussed.

Myungho Jang, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), stated, “At this conference, we held discussions on technology transfer with the global top 5 pharmaceutical companies based on our research achievements. Amid growing attention to next-generation immunocytokines that selectively target tumors and immune cells rather than simple cytokines, we were able to confirm the interest of global pharmaceutical companies in GI-101 and GI-102.”

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