The stock prices of biotech and digital health companies, including Lunit, VUNO, JLK, Qurient, GI Innovation, and Geninus, recorded a simultaneous surge, drawing the attention of industry officials and investors.

On Thursday, the stock price of medical artificial intelligence (AI) company Lunit rose 17.44 percent, or 23,200 won ($17.4), from the previous day to close at 156,200 won.

VUNO, which develops medical AI solutions, showed a 19.55 percent (5,700 won) increase from the previous day.

JLK stocks also closed at 29,000 won, up 12.19 percent (3,150 won) from the previous day. JLK’s AI ischemic stroke (cerebral infarction) type analysis solution, JBS-01K, was recently selected as a target for health insurance coverage for innovative medical technologies in the AI field.

Some of the companies whose stock prices rose sharply on the day also had one thing in common: They are participating in the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2023), being held in San Diego, Calif., from Wednesday to Sunday.

Founded in 1984, SITC has a membership of more than 4,600 scientists, researchers, and clinicians from 63 countries worldwide, and its annual meeting is one of the world's major cancer conferences.

According to the industry, Lunit, Qurient, NKMax, GI Innovation, ABL Bio, TiUM Bioo, Eutilex, Pharmicell, Geninus, Y Biologics, Aston Sci., Genuv, and NeoImmuneTech participated in this year's event.

In particular, Qurient's share price increased by 29.97 percent (1,010 won) on the day, reaching a high of 4,380 won. At this year's SITC, Qurient presented data from the phase 1 clinical trial of its oral immuno-oncology candidate adrixetinib (development name; Q702) and unveiled the clinical design for the combination with Keytruda, being co-developed with Merck (MSD).

Qurient has been conducting monotherapy trials of adrixetinib in the U.S. for patients with late-stage cancers, including colorectal and pancreatic cancer. This year, the company initiated a trial of adrixetinib combined with Keytruda in the U.S. and Korea.

Genomic analytics company Geninus also saw its shares climb 8.99 percent (275 won) on the day. At the SITC 2023, Geninus presents data from nonclinical efficacy trials of its cancer vaccine platform VACINUS. Geninus will file a phase 1 IND (investigational new drug) application next year.

GI Innovation shares also rose 9.04 percent to 18,700 won. Following the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2023 in Madrid, Spain, last month, GI Innovation will present the research results of its major immuno-oncology pipeline, including GI-101, GI-102, and GI-108, at SITC.

Lunit, which also attended ESMO 2023, will present six poster presentations at SITC on studies that utilized its AI biomarker, Lunit SCOPE IO, to predict treatment outcomes in multiple cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer.

Lunit will present a study on analyzing the distribution of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) to predict the treatment effectiveness of immuno-oncology therapies in patients with EGFR (epithelial growth factor receptor) mutations, the most common mutation in NSCLC, who have developed resistance after treatment with TKIs, a targeted anticancer therapy.

The researchers used Lunit SCOPE IO to evaluate the distribution of TILs before and after TKI treatment in 76 patients with EGFR-mutated NSCLC. They categorized them into three immunophenotypes -- immune active, immunodeficient, and immunosuppressed.

The results showed that the immune-active patients classified by Lunit SCOPE IO had a higher overall response rate (ORR, 40.0 percent vs. 7.5 percent) and progression-free survival (PFS, 4.1 months vs. 1.4 months) to immuno-oncology therapy than the immunodeficient patients.

In addition, a study analyzing the correlation of TIL distribution with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) using Lunit SCOPE IO found that among the six molecular subtypes (gene expression patterns) of TNBC, TIL distribution was significantly higher in the immunomodulatory (IM) subtype compared to other types.

"After presenting three research abstracts at SITC last year, Lunit expanded its research to a wider range of cancer types this year, resulting in six studies being accepted and presented at the conference," Lunit CEO Suh Beom-seok said. "We will continue to demonstrate the value of our AI biomarker platform, Lunit SCOPE IO, through our participation in SITC, which has emerged as the leading conference in the field of immuno-oncology, while actively pursuing various collaborations with medical stakeholders around the world."