VS Pharmtech Boosts Cancer Treatment Efficacy Without Adding Toxicity

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cancer drugs keep improving, but their limits remain. When antibody therapies first emerged, only a fraction of patients benefited, and small-molecule anticancer drugs often carry severe toxicity. Rather than developing a new anticancer drug, Park Shin-young, CEO of VS Pharmtech (https://www.vspharmtech.com/), has focused on an "anticancer efficacy enhancer" that strengthens existing treatments.

Park graduated from Seoul National University's School of Applied Biology and Chemistry. He then worked in planning roles at Daewon Pharmaceutical, SCM Lifescience and CLIPS, a clinical research company. "Whether a new drug can be commercialized is decided in the clinic," Park said. "I was drawn to the fact that you can gauge a drug's chances of success early, at the clinical stage."

The company grew out of a patent advisory meeting at the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences in late 2018. There, Park encountered research on combining an existing drug with radiation therapy to improve its anticancer effect. He suggested that developing the approach into an efficacy enhancer could give it much wider use. He was offered the chance to start a company on the spot and founded VS Pharmtech that November.

A 20-year-old drug at one-fifth the dose

The company's lead pipeline candidate, VS-101, is a radiosensitizer that makes tumors more responsive to radiation so that more cancer cells die. When radiation damages a cancer cell's DNA, the cell detects the damage and tries to repair it. VS-101 weakens RAD51, a protein central to that repair process, and drives the cancer cell toward death.

VS-101 is being developed through drug repositioning, which finds new uses for an existing medicine. In this case, the drug has been used for more than 20 years. The company aims to give patients only about 20% of the original dose. "The drug itself doesn't cause DNA damage or toxicity," Park said. "We designed the dose so that patients receiving other cancer treatments can take it alongside them without strain."

The first results came from a Phase 1 trial in Korea. Seven patients with stage 1–3 head and neck cancer received VS-101 together with radiation therapy. All seven achieved complete remission, meaning their tumors disappeared, with no dose-limiting toxicities or serious adverse events.

Based on these results, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's Phase 2 plans for head and neck cancer, breast cancer and glioblastoma. These trials extend to patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation together, adding VS-101 to cisplatin for head and neck cancer and to temozolomide for glioblastoma. "This means the FDA recognized that VS-101 causes no significant harm when combined with other anticancer drugs," Park said. "We expect approval for a trial in hard-to-treat ovarian cancer, in combination with a PARP inhibitor, in the first half of next year." The current trials, run at U.S. institutions including Yale Cancer Center, add VS-101 to standard chemoradiation for patients with advanced head and neck cancer. The goal is to improve outcomes without additional side effects.

Seeking joint research at Berkeley

VS Pharmtech is pursuing commercialization on two tracks. For VS-101, it plans to discuss global licensing deals based on interim Phase 2 data. For its preclinical candidates, which are covered by new-compound patents, it is negotiating region by region. One option is to supply them as payloads to antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developers. The company is in talks with firms in the Middle East, Latin America, Japan and China.

The company is also expanding its overseas footprint. It was selected for MARU SF, run by the Asan Nanum Foundation, and then for Bakar Labs, an accelerator program at UC Berkeley. VS Pharmtech is the first Korean company admitted to Bakar Labs. "The first resident company we reached out to was Catena Biosciences, founded by former students of Professor Jennifer Doudna, the 2020 Nobel laureate in chemistry," Park said. "We plan to actively pursue joint R&D with member companies."

Going abroad has not been without difficulties. "Getting FDA approval for a Phase 2 trial doesn't cost much, but it serves as official recognition that you can run clinical development overseas," Park said. "I hope there will be more government programs, training and patent support that let companies practice this process in advance."

VS Pharmtech has raised a cumulative KRW 18.6 billion (about US$13 million) and is currently raising additional funding. It aims to list on the KOSDAQ in 2027 and has already appointed a lead underwriter to plan its timeline. "The timing of the listing will depend on when we close a licensing deal and how large it is," Park said. "We hope to share good news soon."

The company is also a resident of SVC Seoul, a global startup hub in Seoul's Hongdae area. The hub was established to connect startups with strong overseas growth potential to companies, universities, and investors in Korea and abroad.

SOURCE VS Pharmtech