Prestige Biopharma said on Monday that it could speed up the development of solid cancer antibody therapies thanks to the recent patent acquisition for its developed technology on PBP1710, a CTHRC1 neutralizing antibody.

CTHRC1 (collagen triple helix repeat containing 1) is a protein that is highly expressed in cancers such as pancreatic cancer and non-small lung cancer (NSLC). CTHRC1 promotes cancer cell migration through activation of the Wnt5 signaling pathway and also stimulates tumor angiogenesis by promoting the secretion of Ang-2 from vascular endothelial cells.

However, PBP1710 specifically binds to CTHRC1 to inhibit metastasis and growth of these cancer cells.

This is the first time in Korea that CTHRC1 has been targeted and patented to treat various intractable solid cancers, the company said.

Additionally, Prestige Biopharma has applied for patents in a total of 21 countries, including the U.S., Japan, Europe, and China, and is currently undergoing registration screening.

According to the company, it will protect intellectual property rights for the development of PBP1710 through the patent acquisition and plans to also conduct clinical trials on PBP1710 in the future. Furthermore, as a result of evaluating the efficacy of CTHRC1 target antibodies at the cell level, it was confirmed that cancer cell migration and infiltration were suppressed by more than 45 percent in solid cancers such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and colon cancer.

"PBP1710 (anti-CTHRC1) is a new target antibody treatment that can increase the treatment effect and reduce side effects for intractable solid cancers without suitable treatments, alongside our other pancreatic cancer treatment PBP1510 (anti-PAUF)," an official from Prestige Biopharma said.

The company said that it will accelerate research to quickly develop incurable solid cancer treatments based on its antibody-drug pipelines PBP1510 and PBP1710.