Medytox said that the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) has selected Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor-based anticancer drug MT106 development project as a new national drug development project.

The national new drug development project is a cross-ministerial R&D project established to secure global competitiveness in the local drug development field. Accordingly, Medytox will receive administrative and financial support for R&D expenses necessary to derive candidate substances for the next 24 months from the KDDF.

"Although MT106 is still a pipeline in its early stages, the selection of the national new drug development project has enabled us to accelerate the discovery of candidate substances and entry into non-clinical trials," a company official said.

The official added that aside from MT106, Medytox is conducting non-clinical trials for treatments such as MT107 (solid cancer) and MT981 (immune checkpoint inhibitory antibody treatment) and are developing further follow-up pipelines. The company plans to concentrate all its R&D capabilities and know-how under the goal of becoming a global new drug development company, he added.

MT106 is a next-generation BTK inhibitor pipeline that Medytox is developing for the treatment of blood cancer.

Notably, Medytox aims to discover new low-molecular-weight synthetic drug candidates to overcome resistance limitations, such as the C481S gene mutation shown in Imbruvica (ingredient name: ibrutinib), a first-generation BTK inhibitor.

Besides, the company is conducting phase 3 clinical trials for MBA-P01 regarding botulinum toxin formulation, its main pipeline, through its affiliate Medytox Korea to secure it as a new growth engine.

Medytox Korea will soon complete recruiting patients, aiming to launch the product next year.