Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s hopes for AML drug candidate HM43239, licensed out to Aptose Biosciences, are rising amid accumulating clinical data that appear to put the oral myeloid kinome inhibitor on the right track to registrational studies.

The head of the US arm of a major Korean government development institute talks to Scrip about why biotechs and pharma firms are flocking to Boston, how the organization is providing support and what the main challenges are.

Among recent highlights, SK Bioscience files for approval of recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine GBP510, Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s Chinese subsidiary continues to report strong earnings, led by cold drug sales, while Yuhan’s novel peptide drug candidate for degenerative disc disease is set to move into a Phase III trial in the US.

The Korean drug ministry has formed a commercialization strategy support group to accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines for public health crises, along with new technologies or concepts, underscoring the significance of successful development of new home-grown options.