NEW YORK – Lynk Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company in Hangzhou, China, has inked an exclusive licensing pact with Kobe University and Riken Research Institute in Japan to develop RAS inhibitors with a novel mechanism of action.
Under the collaboration, Lynk will use its chemistry and drug design expertise and build on Kobe University and Riken's early structural biology and screening research to advance drugs that target a broader range of RAS mutations.
RAS is an oncogenic driver that has been seen in most pancreatic cancers, half of colon cancer cases, and around a third of lung adenocarcinomas. Long considered an undruggable target, drug developers and researchers have recently made progress in advancing drugs that target KRAS G12C-mutated cancers.
Through this collaboration, Lynk said that it is hoping to advance RAS inhibitors "with desirable properties to target a broader range of undruggable RAS onco-drivers and ultimately develop the compounds for clinical use."
"This is a very ambitious approach for us to challenge a decades-old undruggable target, but we believe our approach, with an exciting novel mechanism of action, will bring better hope to the patients by joining hands with two reputed research organizations," said Lynk Chairman and CEO Zhao-Kui Wan in a statement.