Plans to Develop Its Own mRNA Platform
Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced its R&D plan for this year, including some 30 new drug pipelines currently under development, at the 40th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Jan. 12 (U.S. local time).
The drugmaker also revealed its strategy to develop various new drugs, including a COVID-19 vaccine, using its own messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) platform. Hanmi Pharmaceutical has been quite active in R&D. It has invested 2.7 trillion won over the past decade.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical is currently developing more than 30 new drugs, including 13 anti-cancer drugs, eight cardiovascular, renal and metabolism (CVRM) treatments, five rare disease treatments and four in other sectors. Its R&D workforce is more than 600 personnel, accounting for more than 25 percent of the company's total employees.
“We look forward to FDA approval on Rolontis and Poziotinib, which are being developed by our partner company Spectrum, in 2022,” said the company's president Kwon Se-chang, who oversees new drug development.
Spectrum plans to file a biologics license application (BLA) for Rolontis to the FDA in the first quarter of 2022. The company received a complete response letter (CRL) about Rolontis, a treatment for neutropenia, after voluntarily returning the drug’s U.S. license in 2019. As for Poziotinib, an application for FDA approval was completed in December 2021.
“We will seek to create new growth engines in new drug fields such as mRNA drugs, while at the same time endeavoring to achieve results in the anticancer, rare disease and metabolic disease sectors,” Kwon underscored.