SK Biopharmaceuticals, the new drug development unit of South Korea’s SK Group, has taken its first step into the cancer treatment market by entering a new partnership with a cancer research body at a Korean hospital.

SK Biopharm and the Samsung Medical Center’s Institute for Refractory Cancer Research signed a joint drug research partnership in Seoul on Thursday, agreeing to co-develop new drugs to treat brain tumors for the next three years.

They plan to merge SK Biopharm’s decadeslong expertise in central nervous system diseases with the Samsung Medical Center’s preclinical drug evaluation system to develop a new drug for refractory cancer, or cancer which does not respond to existing treatments.

Patients with refractory cancer, such as cancer caused by malignant brain tumors, have little chance of survival as they do not respond to traditional treatments such as surgeries, radiation therapy and medication.

The joint research team will test chemical compounds with higher cerebral blood vessel membrane penetration abilities than existing brain tumor treatments, SK Biopharm said.

The hospital expects its preclinical evaluation system called Avatar Scan to accelerate the development of the new brain cancer drug. As a form of a precision medicine, the scanner analyzes a cancer patient’s stem cells to build the optimal treatment program for the patient.

The global market for brain tumor, or glioblastoma, treatments is expected to grow 17 percent annually to reach $3.3 billion by 2024, according to pharmaceutical market research firm GlobalData.

Considering the market’s potential, SK Biopharm plans to further expand its cancer drug portfolio and export its brain tumor therapies once clinical trials are proven successful.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)