Korean biotech firms show off capabilities in Europe

Visitors are seen at Celltrion's booth during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Paris in this photo provided by the company, Monday. Courtesy of Celltrion

By Baek Byung-yeul

HLB, Celltrion, NeoImmuneTech and other Korean biotech companies confirmed their competitiveness in Europe as they showcased their new drug development capabilities at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, an annual medical oncology fair to share the latest developments in cancer research, they said Tuesday.

This year's ESMO Congress was held in Paris for five days from Sept. 9 to 13, featuring around 20,000 medical oncology experts and clinical professionals from around the world.

At the fair, local biotech company HLB announced that a liver cancer treatment using its Rivoceranib drug was confirmed to be effective in liver cancer patients after going through Phase 3 clinical trials.

The company said Shukui Qin, chair of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), announced the clinical results of a combination therapy that uses Rivoceranib and Camrelizumab in front of medical professionals, investors and company officials at the fair.

Qin said the clinical trials which began in 2019 showed that the liver cancer treatment recorded 22.1 months of median overall survival (mOS), which refers to the time from the start of the treatment to the death of the patient.

The drug was tested on 543 patients in 13 countries including the United States, China, Korea and European countries, after the company earned approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies to begin the Phase 3 clinical trials.

“It is very surprising that the combination of Rivoceranib and Camrelizumab demonstrated high efficacy and safety in primary treatments for liver cancer regardless of region and race,” Stephen Chan, a clinical professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a committee member of the ESMO Congress, was quoted as saying by HLB.

“We hope that we can prescribe this new treatment option in actual medical situations involving patients with liver cancer who are in dire need.”

For commercializing the treatment, HLB applied for a pre-new drug application (NDA) meeting with the FDA. Given both Rivoceranib and Camrelizumab received orphan designations from the FDA, the company expects the approval procedure to proceed quickly.

Celltrion also attracted visitors to its promotional booth during the fair. The company said the booth garnered around 400 visitors, most of whom were medical professionals from European countries such as the U.K. and France.

At the congress, the company unveiled the clinical test results of its anti-cancer treatment biosimilar Vegzelma and clinical trials on 689 patients in Europe, South America and Asia, and that the drug proved its similarity in survival analysis compared to the original drug.

“At the global Phase 3 clinical trials of Vegzelma, we have confirmed similarities compared to original drugs in survival analysis indicators and safety,” a Celltrion spokesman said. “We will do our best to strengthen the company's anti-cancer drug portfolio and create synergy with existing anti-cancer drugs.”

Another local biotech company, NeoImmuneTech, also announced the results of biomarker analysis of its T-cell amplifier NT-17 at the congress and a Phase 2a study, which was conducted on patients with pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer and ovarian cancer, and confirmed effective results such as reducing tumor size.