As a pioneer of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to drug discovery, Insilico Medicine Inc. recently made breakaway progress to bring a generative AI-designed drug to life, announcing the progression of its INS018-055 candidate to phase II trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) is effectively resetting all biopharmaceutical companies to the figurative starting line, and collaboration is a key strategy to winning the drug discovery race, an AI-based startup founder said at the Global Bio Conference (GBC) 2023.
Genexine Co. Ltd.’s recombinant human growth hormone eftansomatropin alfa (GX-H9/TJ-101) met the primary endpoint in a phase III pediatric study conducted in China in children with growth hormone deficiency, and the company plans to file a BLA in 2024 in China on the data.
Data-driven health care platform company Kakao Healthcare Corp. may be embarking on its most ambitious project yet: launching an effective “AI-platform bridge” over patient waters to connect medical institutions, government and the industry for novel drug discovery and research.
Seoul, South Korea-headquartered Boryung Co. Ltd. grabbed headlines in 2022 with its strategic redesign to move beyond drug development, announcing that it would invest $10 million in Axiom Space Inc. for a 0.4% stake in the U.S. commercial space station developer. The investment ramped up over the course of a year, with Boryung pouring a total of $60 million into Axiom Space over two financing rounds for a 2.7% stake. Axiom is set to build the world’s first commercial space station.
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. have entered into a joint development agreement that could revolutionize vaccines by developing a vaccine-delivery device combination product using Vaxxas’ high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) coupled with SK Bioscience’s typhoid vaccine, Skytyphoid.
Verismo Therapeutics Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s HLB Co. Ltd., inked a license agreement with the University of Pennsylvania for two newly discovered CD19 binders – one of which will be used to develop Synkir-310, its investigative CAR T therapy for blood cancers.
Incannex Healthcare Ltd. is gearing up to begin a pivotal phase II/III trial in the U.S. for its lead asset, IHL-42X (dronabinol/acetazolamide), a synthetic cannabinoid combination drug for sleep apnea.
South Korean pharmaceutical firms LG Chem Ltd. and JW Pharmaceutical Corp. are recouping and pressing on with their respective novel gout drugs internationally, with each having faced regulatory setbacks from IND rejections overseas.
South Korea’s Celltrion Inc. is rolling out a tweaked plan to merge its three affiliates – electing for a two-way merger followed by consolidation with the final branch – in its latest efforts to rise through the ranks and emerge as a “true” big pharma.