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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hutchmed (China) Ltd.’s sovleplenib (HMPL-523) met the primary endpoint of durable response rate and all secondary endpoints in the pivotal phase III trial in adults with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in China.

Imagion Biosystems Ltd. signed a flurry of deals recently to expand its pioneering molecular magnetic resonance imaging platform Magsense beyond Australia and into additional indications to detect cancer earlier.