Daewoong Pharmaceutical, a Korean drugmaker, said on Friday that it will unveil three anticancer pipelines at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, taking place from April 25 to 30 in Chicago, the U.S.
The three investigational drugs are targeted therapy DWP216, immunotherapy DWP217, and synthetic lethality drug DWP223.
All three will be presented for the first time globally.
Daewoong will showcase preclinical results of these three candidate drugs in four posters.
Researchers work at Daewoong Pharmaceutical. (Courtesy of Daewoong Pharmaceutical)
Researchers work at Daewoong Pharmaceutical. (Courtesy of Daewoong Pharmaceutical)
The company highlighted that DWP216 has shown promising results in treating brain cancer and brain metastasis by crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). It demonstrated superior tumor inhibition compared to existing TEAD1 protein selective inhibitors and TEAD full-type inhibitors in animal models. Additionally, DWP216 reduced cancer cell resistance and enhanced the effectiveness of existing anticancer drugs in non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer with EGFR and KRAS mutations.
DWP217, the immunotherapy, proved more effective than current arginase inhibitors in animal studies, improving the immunosuppressive tumor environment and enabling immune cells to attack cancer more aggressively.
DWP223, the synthetic lethality drug, showed potent anti-cancer effects at low doses in animal studies. When combined with existing anticancer drugs (PARP inhibitors), DWP223 shrank tumors by over 50%. It also demonstrated strong safety, with no weight loss or hematologic toxicity observed. DWP223 is currently in preclinical development and is set for IND filing in Korea this year.
"This presentation at AACR 2025 is a significant achievement, demonstrating the potential to develop a first-in-class anti-cancer drug, leveraging Daewoong’s drug development expertise and research capabilities," said Park Sung-soo, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical. "We will continue to accelerate the development of global innovative drugs in oncology, following our success in autoimmunity and fibrosis."
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