Therapex said Tuesday that its targeted proteolytic drug (TPD)-based hematologic cancer therapeutics research and development project has been selected for the second round of the 2024 National Drug Development Program of the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) under the “Outstanding Drug Development Support for Promoting Global Expansion and Partnering” program.

As a result of this selection, Therapex will be supported by the project for the next one-and-a-half years. The ultimate goal is to identify TPD-based antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates for treating relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia, which is refractory or poorly responsive to existing blood cancer therapies.

To this end, Therapex will collaborate with Pinotbio, a biotech specializing in ADCs, to conduct ADC optimization studies. In April, Therapex signed a collaborative research agreement with Pinotbio to develop TPD-based ADC anticancer drugs.

While most ADCs developed to date utilize cytotoxic substances as payloads, Therapex focuses on minimizing toxicity by securing selectivity to normal cells using TPD.

“The selection of this new drug development support project is evaluated as a recognition of the differentiation of our leading ADC made with TPD payload,” Therapex CEO Lee Koo said. "Through developing next-generation ADCs with efficacy and safety, we will derive next-generation candidates with global competitiveness within the next year and do our best to enter overseas markets.”