Celltrion announced on February 27 that it has signed a collaborative research and development agreement with Genemedicine, a South Korean oncolytic virus development company, to develop a systemically administered oncolytic virus platform technology.
Under the agreement, Celltrion will provide CT-P6 DS (Drug Substance) as a raw material for systemic anti-cancer virus platform technology using trastuzumab as a target, and Genemedicine will be responsible for non-clinical studies.
The two companies plan to develop the platform technology with the goal of completing nonclinical trials by the end of this year and actively cooperate in developing the platform technology, including exchanging essential information required for nonclinical trials.
Anti-cancer viruses are a technology that uses viruses to induce the specific killing of cancer cells and upregulate the expression of cancer therapeutic genes in tumors, and are being applied to the development of next-generation anti-cancer drugs.
However, existing anti-cancer viruses are often quickly eliminated when injected through intravenous injection because they are recognized as foreign bodies by the human immune system and attacked. In addition, the lack of tumor specificity and the low effectiveness of systemic treatment have been cited as limitations, so companies are actively working to complement the technology.
Genemedicine has developed the original technology of 'anti-cancer adenovirus (GM-oAd)' that wraps the surface of the anti-cancer virus with non-immunogenic nanomaterials and binds to the target site of the tumor, and has begun to develop a platform technology for systemic administration of anti-cancer viruses through collaboration with Celltrion.
In addition to the development of this platform technology, Genemedicine has developed four anti-cancer virus gene therapy pipelines (GM101, GM102, GM103, and GM104) and a local administration enhancement drug delivery system (DDS) platform technology, which are in clinical development and commercialization.
"By participating in the development of this anti-viral platform technology, Celltrion has expanded its anti-cancer area to include not only the anti-cancer antibody therapeutics we have already secured, but also ADC therapeutics, bispecific antibodies, and anti-viral platforms under development," said an official from Celltrion. "We will continue our efforts to develop new drugs by actively utilizing collaborations with biotechs with promising technologies and platforms such as Genemedicine."
