Samjin Pharm and Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) will launch the Drug Discovery project on liver concer. IPK and Samjin Pharm recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a collaborative Drug Discovery Project and they will collaborate from basic research to discovery hit. 

IPK’s Phenomic screening technology and Samjin Pharm’s compound optimization technology will be used together to conduct basic research to discover drug candidates with the potential to be a first-in-class liver cancer drug. 

Despite liver cancer being the sixth most frequent cancer globally, and the second leading cause of cancer death, it has been difficult to develop targeted therapies. 

Through this project, they can use a 3D cell culture system which simulates the cancer cell’s extracellular matrix, so they can screen novel compounds, highly improving the outcome of clinical trials.

Research will take place over the next three years starting July 2016 but both Samjin Pharm and IPK have an expectation to continue collaborating on other drug discovery research projects in the coming years. 

“Evolving understanding of disease mechanisms and advancing assay/screening technologies have ena-bled a faster, more efficient timeline from scientific discovery to drugs,” said Roberto Bruzzone, IPK CEO. “And working together as part of a dynamic community, focusing on innovation strengthens and our capabilities to fill knowledge gaps of commerce to improve health and benefit society.”

Dr. HeeJong Shin, Executive Director of Samjin Pharm Research Institute says, “By combining Samjin’s drug discovery capability and IPK’s drug discovery technology, we are expecting to discover first-in-class drug with a novel mechanism not only for chemotherapy-refractory liver cancer but also for other incurable diseases.” 

Source: The Herald Business (6 July, 2016)