On April 13, 2024 Ingenium Therapeutics reported the company had attracted ‘Pre-Series A’ investment worth 5.7 billion won (Press release, Ingenium Therapeutics, APR 13, 2022, View Source [SID1234643520]).
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Venture capital (VC) companies such as Capstone Partners, K-Ground, Kairos Investment, Maple, and Laplace participated in this investment.
Ingenium is developing an anti-cancer natural killer (NK) cell therapy. The patent was transferred from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. It is explained that clinical results (data), management’s expertise, and potential as a next-generation anticancer drug led to this investment.
Ingenium plans to apply for phase 1 and 2 clinical trials to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety at the end of this month. It is planned to be conducted on patients with refractory acute myeloid leukemia (refractory AML) at three domestic medical institutions, including Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital.
For lymphocytic leukemia, chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) treatment is commercially available. On the other hand, there is currently no specific treatment for incurable acute myeloid leukemia. Even after receiving an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, the recurrence rate within one year is 60-70%. Also, the 5-year survival rate is less than 10%.
Ingenium also reported that it succeeded in mass producing NK cells. The company’s NK cells are expected to have strong anti-cancer abilities due to their high expression of surface active receptors and high levels of ‘interferon gamma (IFN-r)’. It was said that cell viability was also high, overcoming the problem of ‘short survival period in the body’, which was known to be a limitation of existing NK cell treatments.
A company official said, "As a result of researchers’ clinical trials conducted by Korea Life Insurance Co., Ltd. on about 100 patients with incurable leukemia between 2009 and 2018, the survival rate increased more than three times compared to existing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation," adding, "The goal is to obtain conditional approval in 2024 when phase 2 is completed." "He said.
Ingenium is also preparing for global clinical trials with the goal of entering next year. We plan to pursue clinical trials not only for intractable leukemia, but also for lung cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer, which have previously shown effectiveness in preclinical trials.