AI and advanced biotechnology are reshaping South Korea’s med-tech sector, but great technology alone is not enough to build a successful medical device company, speakers said at MedTech Innovator’s Medtech Spotlight: New Impact Korea 2026.

Oryon Cell Therapies, named after the Orion constellation used for navigation at night, emerged from stealth mode to announce a new round of funding and to present data from the phase Ib/IIa study of its neuron replacement therapy in patients with Parkinson’s disease at the 20th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases.

Neuroinflammation has arisen as a key factor in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Chronic immune activation in the brain leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory mediators that contribute to neuronal damage, thus impacting cognitive function during the progression of the disease. Transcriptomic and epigenomic analyses were performed to understand the epigenetic mechanisms behind the expression of inflammatory genes in AD brain.

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare, often aggressive, neuroendocrine thyroid tumor with limited targeted treatment options, arising from calcitonin-producing C cells and sometimes associated with RET mutations. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported the potential of targeting DLL3 as a therapeutic strategy in MTC.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) involves the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons, particularly in the substantia nigra. This neurodegeneration is linked to the abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein, a protein that forms toxic aggregates and spreads between cells, damaging them. At the 20th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (AD/PD), held from March 17 to 21, 2026, in Copenhagen, several strategies were presented that aim to modify the course of the disease and offer real alternatives to purely symptomatic treatments.

A new way of understanding Alzheimer’s disease, based on biological inflection points that mark decisive moments in the progression of the disorder, could change how new drugs are developed to achieve more effective therapies. This new perspective could rethink strategies that depend not so much on the target itself, but on the precise moment at which it is addressed.

Researchers from Incyte Corp. reported the efficacy of INCB-161734, a KRAS G12D inhibitor, in combination with various strategies in models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs).

At the ESMO Targeted Anticancer Therapies Congress held this week in Paris, researchers at Mabqi SAS presented the preclinical characterization of MQI-201, an anti-TRPV6 therapeutic antibody in models of metastatic prostate cancer.