Oscotec Accelerates Anti-Resistance Cancer Drug Platform with New Research Institute Team

Oscotec announced on May 7 that it has established a dedicated 'Platform Technology Team' within its research institute, signaling a full-scale initiative to build a platform for anti-resistance cancer drug development.

The newly formed Platform Technology Team was created to systematically search, analyze, and validate the mechanisms behind resistance development and related targets in the field of oncology—a major challenge in cancer treatment. The team aims to build a platform for this purpose and, based on its findings, discover new candidate compounds for anti-resistance cancer drugs.

The Platform Technology Team plans to establish a high-throughput, high-content screening (HTS/HCS) system that enables real-time observation of how cancer cells develop resistance to existing cancer drugs and utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) technology for single-cell level image analysis (single cell morpholomics) to identify anti-resistance targets. To lead this effort, Oscotec recently recruited Dr. Grailhe Regis, who has spent the past decade heading an image-based drug efficacy screening platform at Institut Pasteur Korea, as the team leader.

Furthermore, Oscotec intends to expand its research to identify the main causes of resistance acquired by cancer cells during treatment, using AI- and systems biology-based analysis, and to discover core targets involved in resistance formation.

Oscotec is currently verifying the potential of its anti-resistance cancer drug OCT-598, which is in Phase 1 clinical trials, to intervene in the process of resistance development in cancer cells. OCT-598 is a dual EP2/EP4 inhibitor. It is a candidate anti-cancer drug that modulates signals transmitted by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) through the EP2 and EP4 receptors. While PGE2 is involved in inflammation regulation and tissue repair in normal tissues, it is also known to promote the survival of residual cancer cells and contribute to immune evasion in the tumor microenvironment. By targeting this PGE2 signaling pathway, OCT-598 aims to enhance the durability and effectiveness of existing cancer treatments.

In addition to OCT-598, Oscotec is developing four anti-resistance cancer drug pipelines, including ONC1 through ONC3. Going forward, the company plans to leverage the Platform Technology Team to continuously discover new targets specific to cancer resistance mechanisms and to expand its pipeline of anti-resistance cancer drugs that can be applied to various cancer types and treatment combinations.

Tae-Young Yoon, CEO of Oscotec, stated, "Over the past two years, we have completed the fundamental proof of concept regarding cancer drug resistance, and with the establishment of the Platform Technology Team, we intend to expand and apply this foundation to rapidly secure a leading position in the new modality of anti-resistance cancer therapy." He added, "We plan to build a platform for identifying customized targets that play a key role in the manifestation of resistance to various standard cancer therapies." He also said, "Through this, we aim to develop combination therapies that maximally suppress resistance—a major limitation of current cancer treatments—and to pioneer a new paradigm in cancer therapy that prolongs patients' lives."

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