Hanmi Pharmaceutical, a major South Korean drugmaker, said Sunday it will present nine preclinical research results at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR 2026) annual meeting, to be held in San Diego from April 17 to 22 local time. The tally marks the highest number of presentations among Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies participating in the conference.
Hanmi has held the record for four consecutive years, presenting seven studies in 2023, 10 in 2024 and 11 in 2025.
At this year's AACR, Hanmi plans to present poster sessions on new drug candidates including targeted anticancer therapies aimed at key oncogene mutations and immuno-oncology agents based on a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) platform. The company will unveil a total of nine studies covering eight drug candidates: △EZH1/2 dual inhibitor (HM97662), △selective HER2 inhibitor (HM100714), △SOS1-KRAS interaction inhibitor (HM101207), △EP300 selective degrader, △STING mRNA anticancer drug, △two studies on a p53-mRNA anticancer drug, and △4-1BB x PD-L1 bispecific antibody (BH3120) and △B7H3 x PD-L1 bispecific antibody ADC (BH4601), the latter two led by Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical.
The research and development center of Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical, the Chinese subsidiary of the Hanmi Group, is drawing particular industry attention as it will unveil for the first time the mechanism of action and pharmacological activity of its new anticancer project BH4601. According to Hanmi, BH4601 is a next-generation anticancer project based on a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that simultaneously targets B7H3 and PD-L1. The project is expected to present a differentiated mechanism and the potential to overcome limitations of existing ADC drugs.
"Hanmi Pharmaceutical's oncology pipeline, a core pillar of our new drug development, is expanding into diverse modality areas including targeted protein degradation (TPD), mRNA, cell and gene therapy (CGT), and ADC," said Choi In-young, head of Hanmi Pharmaceutical's R&D Center. "Based on our global-level technological capabilities and cutting-edge infrastructure, we will lead the next-generation drug development paradigm by integrating new technologies such as artificial intelligence and bioinformatics across our entire research process."