ImmuneOncia, a subsidiary of Yuhan Corp., said it obtained approval for a phase-1 clinical trial on IMC-001, an immunotherapy to fight cancer, from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Thursday.

The company will test the drug on 24 patients with metastatic or locally advanced solid tumors. The study will be a phase-1, open-label, multiple dose escalation test at Samsung Medical Center and Seoul National University Hospital.

IMC-001 is an anti-PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1) antibody that inhibits checkpoint molecules and enables immune cells to eat up cancerous cells.

ImmuneOncia is a joint venture established in 2016 between Yuhan and the U.S. antibody drug development firm Sorrento Therapeutics. The joint venture aims to develop and commercialize immune-checkpoint monoclonal antibodies to treat blood cancer and solid cancer.

The company is now working on three immune-checkpoint antibodies. ImmuneOncia will own the exclusive license to the first developed immune-checkpoint antibody, except for the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Then, the company will have exclusive licensing rights of the two additional immune-checkpoint antibodies in the global market.

ImmuneOncia is also developing YH-25448, a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The company has completed the phase-1 clinical trial on the experimental drug.

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