[Pangyo Bio & Medical] Genome & Company registers original patent for new target ‘CNTN-4’

Genome & Company (CEO Bae Ji-soo and Park Han-soo), a leading global anti-cancer immunotherapy company, completed registration of the original patent for a new target (code name GICP-104, ingredient name and hereinafter, CNTN-4) at the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 29th. With this original patent registration, Genome & Company is expected to be able to exclusively develop and commercialize various anti-cancer treatments using the target.

‘CNTN-4’ is the target of ‘GENA-104’, which is in the earliest stage of new target immunotherapy drugs being developed by Genome & Company, and has been confirmed to be highly expressed in cancer tissues of various cancer patients. ‘GENA-104’ is a new target immuno-anticancer drug that inhibits ‘CNTN-4’ expressed in cancer cells, and has been confirmed to have sufficient anti-cancer efficacy as a single therapy through numerous animal experiments.

This original patent registration is Genome & Company’s third new target patent registered this year, and is the result of recognition for the excellence of the new target discovered by the company and its research and development capabilities. ‘CNTN-4’ is the target of ‘GENA-104’, which is in the fastest preclinical stage (IND enabling study) among Genome & Company’s new target immuno-anticancer drug pipeline. The company believes that this target will be a more meaningful patent registration as it is the fastest stage among all the targets the company is developing.

Bae Ji-su, CEO of Genome & Company, said, “R&D related to our company’s various new target immune anticancer drugs is also progressing smoothly, starting with the signing of a process development agreement with Samsung BioLogics in December of last year.” He added, “For new targets, many global companies are conducting preclinical trials. “As there are many precedents for technology transfer at an early stage, Genome & Company will also continue to generate profits from intellectual property rights and achieve meaningful results,” he said.

Genome & Company is developing a number of ‘First-in-Class’ novel targets and various new target immuno-anticancer drugs targeting them through GNOCLE™, a new drug development platform. Last April, at the American Cancer Society’s ‘AACR 2021’, a total of two research presentations were made on ‘CNTN-4’, a new immuno-anticancer target, and ‘GENA-104’, a new immuno-anticancer antibody candidate, which attracted attention.

Meanwhile, the scale and importance of research and development on novel targets are increasing over time. Most of the existing immunotherapy drugs target PD-(L)1 and CTLA-4, which has the advantage of showing excellent effectiveness in specific cancer patients, but the response rate is low, so new targets are discovered for the unmet needs of non-responders. The importance of has continued to emerge.

Source:  Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom

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