According to a statement released on Oct. 16 on Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s English-language website, the company participated in the 2023 AACR-NCI-EORTC international academic conference held in Boston, Massachusetts, the U.S. from Oct. 11 to 15. During the conference, the company presented research results on an innovative anti-cancer drug they are developing named HM99462.
The AACR-NCI-EORTC is a prestigious academic conference co-hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). The conference annually highlights the latest major research findings related to cancer treatments.
The drug HM99462, presented by Hanmi Pharmaceutical, is a new SOS1 inhibitor that prevents the activation of KRAS by inhibiting the binding between the SOS1 protein and KRAS. While there are existing inhibitors approved for lung cancer that prevent KRAS activation, they face challenges with emerging resistance mechanisms, and their efficacy is limited for cancers like colorectal and pancreatic, which frequently arise from KRAS mutations.
HM99462 demonstrated anti-cancer activity in various KRAS mutated cancer cell lines, not just KRAS G12C but also in mutations like G12D/V/S and G13D. Additionally, the drug showed powerful synergistic effects when combined with EGFR mutation inhibitors, even confirming the potential to treat EGFR mutated lung cancer.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical plans to leverage these research results as the basis for their upcoming clinical trial application (IND) preparations. They aim to commence Phase 1 clinical trials as early as next year.