MedPacto said Tuesday that it has obtained a European patent for a pharmaceutical composition to prevent and treat blood cancer.

The company plans to apply the patent to the development of MU-D201, a follow-up pipeline of new anticancer drug Vactosertib. MU-D201 is a new drug candidate that inhibits DAP kinase-related apoptosis-inducing kinase-2 (DRAK2), promoting the growth and metastasis of cancer cells.

MedPacto’s pipeline of anticancer drug for preventing and treating blood cancer has won a European patent. (MedPacto)

Medfacto discovered a novel biomarker, DRAK2, which regulates the signal of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-B) through transcriptome analysis.

DRAK2, when overexpressed in cancer tissues, regulates the signal transduction of TGF-B in cancer cells and stimulates cancer growth by modulating the activity of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), which induces epigenetic regulation of the genome.

MedPacto confirmed that MU-D201 inhibits DRAK2 and suppresses growth and metastasis of cancer and has an anticancer effect in a preclinical study.

The safety and efficacy data have been secured by confirming the therapeutic effect diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and gamma delta lymphocytic leukemia through animal experiments, according to MedPacto.

“We expect MU-D201 will have a significant value among patients with blood cancer of intractable diseases as it can inhibit the TGF-B signaling and the epigenetic mechanism in cancer,” a MedPacto official said. “We will begin clinical studies quickly and expand indications.”

MedPacto won the same patent rights in several countries, including Korea, Japan and the U.S., before the commercialization of MU-D201. MedPacto CEO Kim Seong-jin first identified the mechanism of activity related to TGF-B in the role of DRAK2 protein.

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