Genome & Company said Monday that a study of its novel targeted cancer drug candidate, GENA-104, has been published in Science Immunology (top 2.2 percent in Journal Citation Reports with an Impact Factor of 17.6).

Science Immunology, a sister journal of Science, is a world-renowned immunology and tumor immunology journal.

According to Genome & Company, CNTN4, the target of GENA-104, is more prevalent than PD-L1 in patients who have not responded to existing immuno-oncology drugs and has been shown to inhibit T-cell immune responses more strongly than PD-L1. CNTN4 is also expressed in various solid tumors, including gastric, liver, and pancreatic cancers, and is the first novel target discovered by Genome & Company.

Notably, the antibody GENA-104, which targets CNTN4, showed excellent anticancer effects, confirming that the expression level of CNTN4 is an important biomarker for its effectiveness.

In addition, Genome & Company discovered a T-cell protein called “APP” that binds to CNTN4, and an antibody treatment called “GENA-119” targeting it also showed anticancer effects. The study revealed how CNTN4 and APP interact to cause immunosuppression.

“Our company has demonstrated its global competitiveness in new target R&D by discovering new targets and developing antibodies, successfully transferring technology to ADC antibodies in May, and now publishing the results of antibody research for immuno-oncology with another new target in a prestigious journal,” Genome & Company CEO Park Han-soo said. “We will do our best in R&D to achieve meaningful business results for GENA-104, a new target anticancer drug, as soon as possible.”

GENA-104 was selected as a government project of the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) in 2022 in the field of “research to build a new drug R&D ecosystem” and as one of the 10 best projects out of 347 supported by the KDDF in 2023. GENA-119 was also selected as a project of the KDDF in 2023 in the field of “research on expanding the drug base” and is in the process of research and development.