Hanmi Pharmaceutical said its Chinese partner Innovent Biologics has begun phase 1 clinical trial of an anticancer therapy using Pentambody, a platform technology developed by Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, the company's Chinese offshoot.

Pentambody is a next-generation bispecific antibody platform technology, in which one antibody binds to two different targets simultaneously. Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical established a global partnership for joint development and commercialization of the drug with Innovent Biologics, China's leading biotech company, in 2017.

"The company has administered the first dose of IBI315, the new drug candidate that uses Pentambody technology, to a patient with advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) malignant solid cancer as part of its phase 1 clinical trial," Innovent Biologics said.

Innovent plans to confirm the safety, tolerability, and initial efficacy of IBI315 in the trial.

IBI315 is a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and HER2 recombinant fully humanized bispecific antibody that presents potential as a new therapeutic agent in HER2-expressing carcinomas.

IBI315 can induce PD-1, programmed-death ligand 1(PD-L1), and HER2 signaling pathways and induces adjacent PD-1 expressing T cells and HER2 expressing cancer cells, which can produce synergistic effects in immunotherapy and targeted chemotherapy.

"IBI315 is the world's first PD-1 and HER2 bispecific antibody therapy candidate that has entered clinical trials," said Hui Zhou, Innovent Biologics' vice president of oncology strategy & medical science division. "We will work to provide effective treatment options to patients based on safety and potential treatment effects of the candidate."

Hanmi Pharmaceutical Kwon Se-chang also said, "A clinical study into a new drug candidate that uses the company's Pentambody technology has successfully begun. Hanmi will continue to focus on R&D based on close cooperation with our partners to speed up the commercialization of the drug."