On April 1, 2019, ST Pharm (President Kim Kyung-jin) announced the interim results of its pre-clinical new drug candidate ‘STP0404’ for AIDS treatment at the Keystone Symposia held in Vancouver, Canada from March 24 to 28.
Launched in 1972, the Keystone Symposia is the world's most prestigious international society in life sciences, including cancer, new drugs, genetics, and molecular biology.
STP0404, an ALLINI (ALLosteric Integrase Inhibitor) that treats AIDS by inhibiting the non-catalytic activity of HIV integrase, is a first-in-class drug candidate that can overcome the drug resistance found in existing therapeutics that inhibit catalytic activity sites.
ST Pharm has been collaborating with Dr. Kim Bong-jin and Sohn Jong-chan of the Korea Research Institutes of Chemical Technology (KRICT) since 2014 to derive STP03-0404, a candidate for HIV infection treatment. In September 2016, the company secured domestic and overseas patent rights and exclusive development rights through technology transfer from the KRICT.
At the symposia, ST Pharm presented the pre-clinical interim results of STP0404 during the ‘Functional Cures and Eradication of HIV’ session sponsored by Gilead in the form of posters and verbal notifications.
In the pre-clinical studies, STP0404 showed excellent inhibitory effects against various HIV-infected cell lines (PBMC, MT-4, CEMx174), while no cytotoxicity was observed. It also showed an excellent inhibitory effect against the HIV-1 strain resistant to raltegravir, a representative inhibitor of integrase catalytic activity; thus, the possibility of treating patients showing raltegravir resistance has been clearly identified. Furthermore, its safety has been confirmed in oral repeated dose toxicity studies on rodents and non-rodents.
In addition to the pre-clinical results, ST Pharm also presented an early study of a novel mechanism that can treat HIV by completely eliminating the ability of HIV’s viral RNA to re-express in host cells. Selected last year by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this study is being jointly researched with Emory University and Colorado State University in the United States.
An official of ST Pharm said, “Through this presentation, we were able to confirm the attendees’ interest in the STP0404’s excellent inhibitory effects and safety as identified in pre-clinical studies, as well as a new mechanism for the cure of AIDS. Next year ST Pharm will do its best to prepare for the start of the phase I clinical study with the aim of successfully developing a first-in-class new drug.
ST Pharm has been carrying out various new drug development projects since 2013 through ‘virtual R&D’, a low-cost, high-efficiency open innovation strategy, and is currently working on three pre-clinical projects and eight initial stage research projects.