SK Biopharmaceuticals said on the 27th it signed an agreement to in-license global development and commercialization rights for the radiopharmaceutical (RPT) candidate "WT-7695" from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
RPTs are medicines that use radiation emitted by radioisotopes to diagnose targets or destroy aberrant cells for treatment. This is SK Biopharmaceuticals' second in-licensed RPT candidate after "SKL35501" last year.
According to the company, WT-7695 targets carbonic anhydrase 9 (CA9), a surface protein on cancer cells. In the preclinical stage, a single administration confirmed efficacy and safety with both the radioisotope labels lutetium-177 and actinium-225. CA9 shows increased expression in hypoxic environments and plays an important role in cancer cell growth and metastasis.
SK Biopharmaceuticals said it will first begin developing a lutetium-177-based therapy, while also reviewing the potential to expand to an actinium-225-based treatment option later. The company plans to simultaneously develop a diagnostic using gallium-68, widely used in cancer diagnostics, for the same target molecule, pairing it with lutetium-177 to form a theranostics (therapy and diagnostics) pair.
SK Biopharmaceuticals President Lee Dong-hoon said, "SK Biopharmaceuticals' RPT portfolio has been structured more robustly," and added, "We will internalize a more complete RPT value chain and establish ourselves as a global leading player."
Meanwhile, SK Biopharmaceuticals said it is preparing to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application for entry into a phase 1 clinical trial for SKL35501, which it in-licensed last year. After in-licensing SKL35501, the company signed actinium-225 supply agreements with radioisotope production corporations such as TerraPower in the United States and Pantera in Belgium, and has continued collaborations with multiple institutions including the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences.