Prestige Biopharma IDC's Taeheung Kang, Director of Drug Development Division: 'Additional Pipelines Ready… Accelerating Resear

[Anchor]

Prestige Biopharma is taking shape with additional pipelines following its pancreatic cancer drug candidate. PBP1710, which has been developed targeting solid tumors, is now being explored for an expanded indication in fibrosis. The company has also secured follow-up pipelines with strong licensing potential, including a subcutaneous (SC) formulation platform. Reporter Hyosun Kim met with Taeheung Kang, Director of Drug Development Division at Prestige Biopharma IDC, to discuss the company’s latest research achievements in detail.

[Reporter]

Prestige Biopharma is accelerating efforts to secure additional pipelines beyond its pancreatic cancer drug candidate. Alongside a pancreatic cancer diagnostic technology with significantly improved sensitivity, the company is advancing antibody development targeting fibrosis and an SC formulation platform, while continuing discussions on potential collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies. We took a closer look at the progress of these programs.

Q. What is the current clinical development status of the pancreatic cancer drug PBP1510?

[Taeheung Kang / Executive Director, Director of Drug Development Division, Prestige Biopharma IDC]

PBP1510 is currently nearing the final stage of its Phase 1 clinical trial. A total of 32 patients have been enrolled and treated, and based on the results available to date, no adverse effects have been reported.

We expect to secure the statistical analysis of the Phase 1 trial by the end of this year. Once those results are finalized, preparations for Phase 2 will essentially be in place. Accordingly, patient recruitment and the Phase 2 clinical trial are expected to begin in 2027.

Q. What progress has been made with the additional pipelines?

[Taeheung Kang / Executive Director, Director of Drug Development Division, Prestige Biopharma IDC]

PBP1710 had previously been developed primarily with a focus on cancer. However, for approximately the past two years, we have also been conducting research into fibrosis as an additional indication.

We have obtained promising results from fibrosis research as well as preclinical efficacy studies conducted in animal models. In particular, we observed clear reductions in key fibrosis-related factors closely associated with our mechanism of action, including collagen and cytokines such as TGF-β.

Based on these findings, we expect to be ready for filing during the first half of next year.

Q. What led to the development of the SC formulation platform, and what are your plans going forward?

[Taeheung Kang / Executive Director, Director of Drug Development Division, Prestige Biopharma IDC]

Our company began efforts to develop a subcutaneous injection formulation about three years ago.

As you know, Prestige Biopharma has a diverse biosimilar portfolio, so we have also been developing technologies that can be applied to those biosimilar products.

Our intention is not to use the SC formulation platform exclusively for our own products. We have already been approached by a number of companies, and discussions aimed at developing more concrete collaborations are currently underway.

For such technologies, we believe there may also be opportunities for licensing-out even before receiving regulatory approval.

Q. What achievements have been made in pancreatic cancer diagnostic technology?

[Taeheung Kang / Executive Director, Director of Drug Development Division, Prestige Biopharma IDC]

By introducing several technologies, we developed a diagnostic method called TASA, which provides approximately 50- to 100-fold greater sensitivity than conventional methods.

With the antibodies we previously had, detection was possible only down to several tens of nanograms. With the new technology, however, we can now detect concentrations in the range of several tens to several hundreds of picograms.

Q. What areas will the company focus on during the second half of the year?

[Taeheung Kang / Executive Director, Director of Drug Development Division, Prestige Biopharma IDC]

With PBP1710, we are already in contact with several very large companies.

As I mentioned, we are preparing for filing next year, so we expect to have more opportunities to present and promote the technology to a broader range of companies.

If that happens, we believe there could be various developments and opportunities beyond what we currently anticipate.

I would say that we are now approaching the market with greater confidence and, in many ways, are entering a stage where we are ready to take on new challenges.

Source: PAX Economic TV  (https://www.paxetv.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=283081)