South Korea’s Boryung Pharmaceutical announced on Aug. 27 it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to start a phase 1 clinical trial of its drug candidate BR2002

The phase 1 clinical trial will be conducted among 90 patients who suffer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, in the US. The company expects the clinical trial to end by February 2024.

Back in 2016, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, which initially developed BR2002, transferred the technology to Boryung Pharmaceutical. The drug candidate aims to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by hindering both “PI3K” and “DNA-PK,” which are major growth regulators of cancer cells.

Around 4,300 people are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma here and more than 510,000 patients are suffering the disease worldwide, according to statistics from the World Health Organization in 2018.

Meanwhile, Boryung Pharmaceutical also has been expanding its presence overseas with its flagship hypertension drug Kanarb. Most recently, it launched Kanarb in the Philippines in May. So far, the company has signed a license-out deal for the Kanarb family brands with partners in 51 different countries and has gained sales approval in 18 countries.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)