Yuhan marks centennial by spotlighting lazertinib's journey to global blockbuster

Yuhan gathered the key figures behind lazertinib — South Korea's 31st domestically developed new drug and a rising global blockbuster for non-small cell lung cancer — to mark its centennial and look back on the treatment's path to worldwide success.

The company held an event titled "Beyond 100 Years" on Tuesday at Willow House in Daebang-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, celebrating lazertinib's research and development journey and its global commercialization.

Timed to coincide with the World Conference on Lung Cancer, the event brought together Yuhan Chief Executive Cho Wook-je and R&D President Kim Yeol-hong, along with Ko Jong-sung of Genosco, who first identified the drug candidate, Cho Byoung-chul, a professor at Yonsei University Severance Hospital who led the clinical trials, and representatives from global partner Johnson & Johnson.

Attendees shared key milestones from the initial discovery through to the successful global combination therapy trials. Ko, speaking as a presenter, described how he and Professor Cho established a target product profile in 2013 and, through precise molecular design optimized for blood-brain barrier penetration and selectivity, identified drug candidate GNS-1480 within roughly a year.

Professor Cho recounted the clinical journey from the 2018 technology licensing deal with J&J (Janssen) and the 2021 domestic approval to the combination therapy's establishment as a global standard of care. A session on first-line treatment presented detailed data from the global Phase 3 trial MARIPOSA, which showed a 25 percent reduction in the risk of death compared with rival drug osimertinib (brand name Tagrisso).

The event highlighted what organizers described as a model of Korean-style open innovation: domestic biotech venture Genosco originated the compound; traditional pharmaceutical company Yuhan identified and refined it; and multinational J&J brought it to market through its large-scale global clinical network.

"Lazertinib is a symbol of the challenges and innovation we have accumulated over the past 100 years, and the achievement that opens the next 100," Cho Wook-je said. "I am grateful to the researchers and partners who collaborated to make the amivantamab combination therapy a source of hope for lung cancer patients around the world."