Many Korean biopharmaceutical companies will participate in the “2023 BIO-Europe Spring” in Basel, Switzerland, from March 20-22. Attention is focused on whether the massive participation will be able to melt frozen bio-related investment sentiment at home and abroad.
Multinational companies, including MSD, Novartis, and Sanofi, will participate in the 2023 BIO-Europe Spring, Europe's largest biopharmaceutical partnering event.
After the three-day offline event, a three-day online event is also scheduled for March 28-30.
Among Korean participants, TiUM Bio, a developer of rare and intractable disease treatments, plans to introduce its major pipelines to multinational pharmaceutical companies and biotechs and discuss signing partnerships and joint research and development.
TiUM Bio is conducting cohort 5 of phase 1 clinical trial for the monotherapy of immune-oncology TU2218. It is also about to begin the clinical trial of its combination therapy with MSD’s immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) this month. The company plans to release major clinical data on TU2218’s mono and combo therapy at global cancer conferences this year.
TiUM Bio has completed recruiting more than 80 percent of European patients for TU2670, an endometriosis treatment. It plans to finish administration within this year and push to sign additional technology export agreements with global pharma companies.
“Multinational biopharma companies and biotechs show high interest in our endometriosis treatment TU2670, which conducts clinical trials in Europe, and immunotherapy TU2218, which inhibits TGF-ß and VEGF simultaneously,” a TiUM Bio official said.
TU 2218 showed superior synergic effects with PD-1 inhibitors represented by Keytruda, planned for clinical trial as a combination drug. It also confirmed excellent nonclinical data, as shown by the high complete remission rate of a maximum of 80 percent in the combined administration of various immunotherapies, such as CLTA-4 or VEGF inhibitors, the official said.
We will discuss partnering with global pharma based on such data,” the official added.
Shaperon, an immunotherapy developer, was selected as a presentation company in the 2023 BIO-Europe Spring. In the presentation, the company plans to introduce its core technology and flagship pipeline developing status.
Shaperon is developing NuGel, a treatment for atopic dermatitis based on inflammatory complex inhibitor technology, Covid-19 treatment NuSepin, and Alzheimer’s treatment NuCerin. The company will soon begin clinical trials for NuGel in the United States.
In addition, Shaperon will have a positive discussion to export technology regarding papiliximab, a PD-L1/CD-47-targeting double-antibody immunotherapy based on nanobody technology developed as the next-generation pipeline and a next-generation inflammatory complex inhibitor.
“Following our participation in the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, we will share our company’s excellent technological power, research results, and business strategy at 2023 BIO-Europe Spring, too, to attain significant results in finding global partners,” a Shaperon official said.
Canariabio, the developer of ovarian cancer treatment oregovomab, will also participate in the event led by CEO Na Han-ik, to meet with many multinational companies regarding information, sharing information, and signing copyright agreements.
Except for the United States, where the company aims to distribute its products directly, Canariabio plans to conduct its marketing through partners in the rest of the global markets.
Canariabio expects oregovomab to rake in a maximum of 6 trillion won ($4.6 billion) in the U.S. market based on the forecast of market surveyor, Evaluate Pharma.
According to Canariabio, oregovomab showed 42 months of progression-free survival in a phase 2 clinical trial, 30 months longer than the existing standard treatment. It began phase 3 global clinical trial in 2020 and expects to see interim results as early as in the second quarter.
“We began to push concluding partnership agreements with many multinational pharma companies last year and have already signed confidentiality agreements for due diligence with eight of them,” CEO Na said. “However, we will discuss with more companies to make them compete with one another to sign contracts in better conditions.”