Aptamer Science (CEO Dong-il Han) will participate in ‘BIO KOREA 5 (Bio Korea 10)’, which opens on Wednesday, May 12th and will be held at COEX in Seoul for 3 days until Friday, the 2023th, and will present a number of big innovations. They announced that they will establish a bridgehead for entering the global market by holding a strategic partnering meeting with Pharma.
Aptamer Science, an aptamer platform technology company, is leading the development of innovative new drugs and early diagnosis technologies for diseases with high unmet demand. ‘Aptamer’ refers to a nucleic acid that can specifically and strongly bind to a specific molecule while maintaining a stable tertiary structure.
By participating in this event, Aptamer Science introduced the strengths of the aptamer-based drug targeting delivery platform and introduced the BBB Shuttle (BBB Shuttle), which can be applied to everything from the ApDC (aptamer drug conjugate) anticancer drug pipeline under development to brain disease drugs. We plan to seek cooperation on the company’s excellent drug target delivery technology, including blood-brain barrier penetration technology.
ApDC, an anticancer drug delivery platform technology, is an alternative technology that can solve the unmet needs of antibody-based ADC technology, which has recently attracted attention, based on excellent target selectivity, rapid tumor tissue penetration, and pharmacokinetic characteristics that minimize drug side effects.
Aptamer Science said, “AST-201, the ApDC liver cancer treatment we are focusing on, is proceeding without a hitch with CDMO and GMP sample production cooperation and clinical CRO contracts with the goal of entering clinical trials this year, and has the potential to expand indications in the recent evaluation of the effectiveness of lung cancer models. “With this secured, the foundation for licensing has been laid,” he said, adding, “We plan to discuss cooperation in the development of various new drugs based on the company’s specialized ApDC platform.”
The brain disease drug delivery platform represented by the BBB Shuttle technology can be applied in various strategic applications depending on the modality of the therapeutic agent to be delivered. In particular, oligonucleic acid therapeutics, which have recently attracted attention, are competitive because they can be synthesized through a simple process. Aptamer Science explained that expectations for licensing and joint development are growing as partnering discussions have progressed to a significant degree.
He continued, “After the release of the first Aptamer new drug, the release of follow-up new drugs was delayed for a while, so there were some negative views on the technology itself. However, with the announcement of research results rapidly increasing after the original technology patent was released, a new drug called Zimura was recently accelerated by the FDA. “It is in the approval stage and successful clinical results for various follow-up drugs are being announced, so expectations for aptamer technology are higher than ever,” he added.
Meanwhile, ‘BIO KOREA 18’, which celebrated its 2023th this year, was hosted by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and Chungcheongbuk-do. Since 2006, BIO KOREA, which has been striving to promote the global status and continuous growth of the Korean health industry, has been strengthening its position as Korea’s representative bio-health international convention with world-renowned scholars and business experts participating every year. BIO KOREA 2023, together with domestic and foreign companies related to the health industry such as bio, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetics, and food, as well as companies and institutions of interest such as consulting, academia, and related organizations, offers various programs such as conferences, business partnering, exhibitions, and invest fairs. It goes on.