South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical on Wednesday announced pre-clinical results of its two new blood cancer candidates at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 7-10, confirming efforts on developing its broad R&D pipeline.

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) established in 1958 is the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. Every December it holds an annual meeting which attracts more than 20,000 hematologists from around the world.

In a poster presentation at the ASH, Hanmi Pharmaceutical said its investigational acute myeloid leukemia (AML) drug (HM43239) showed efficient anti-cancer activity in FLT3 mutation and wild type AML cell lines. The pharmaceutical company is conducting a first-in-human trial with the drug based on the preclinical trial results in relapsed or refractory AML patients in the U.S. and Korea.

The other investigational drug is HM97594 which inhibits both EZH2 and its close homolog EZH1. EZH2 is an enzyme known to be involved in tumor transcription and progression.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical chief executive Kwon Se-chang said the company is building a solid new drug pipeline also in the field of blood cancer, adding it will remain committed to continuous research and development for a better quality of life in patients.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]