Gemvax & KAEL said Tuesday that it has completed patient enrollment for its phase 3 clinical trials of Riavax, a treatment for treating locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Samsung Pharmaceutical, the company’s subsidiary, will conduct the clinical trials. The medicine received conditional approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) as Korea’s 21st novel drug in 2014,

The drug is a peptide consisting of 16 amino acids derived from human telomerase, which, according to the company, is a new immune anticancer drug that activates immune cells in the body and attacks cancer cells.

When administered with conventional chemotherapy, the treatment can prolong the survival rate of pancreatic cancer patients, who have a high level of eotaxin, a biomarker.

The company has been recruiting 148 patients with locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer for its phase 3 clinical trials, to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Riavax at 16 hospitals, including Severance Hospital.

This trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Riavax in combination with capecitabine and gemcitabine, which are conventional anticancer agents for pancreatic cancer, the company said.

Considering that Riavax is a 12-month medication, the company expects to have its result by the end of next year.

“We have finally managed to recruit all the patients needed for the phase 3 clinical trials,” GemVax & KAEL CEO Song Hyoung-gon said. “Next year when the last patient finishes administering the drug, we will be able to confirm the effectiveness of the treatment of pancreatic cancer in Riavax.”

According to a Korea Central Cancer data, the number of pancreatic cancer patients in Korea totaled 6,432 in 2015, the eighth most common cancer in the nation. Its mortality rate ranked fifth among cancer deaths.