Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) (CEO Dr. Youngmee Jee) and KEY Bio (CEO Meekyung Park, KMD) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on August 20th at the IPK located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi-do for collaboration in developing natural product-based therapeutics.

 

The MOU signing ceremony was attended by Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of IPK, Dr. Haengran Seo, Head of Advanced Biomedical Research Team of IPK, Dr. Meekyung Park, CEO of KEY Bio, and Dr. Kihwang Lee, the technical advisor of KEY Bio. 

KEY Bio CEO Meekyung Park (left) and IPK CEO Dr. Youngmee Jee exchanged MOU on the 20th.
 

The two institutions will focus on developing therapeutics for fibrosis including liver cirrhosis, pulmonary fibrosis, and skin fibrosis, and gather expertise and competence through multilateral cooperation in joint research and exchange of academic information. Fibrosis is a disease in which tissues become damaged and hardened due to various causes, reducing the function of human organs and threatening the life of the patient; yet, there is currently no effective treatment.

 

IPK derived two drug candidates for the treatment of fibrosis through cell culture experiments and confirmed their toxicity and efficacy in animal models. Dr. Haengran Seo’s research team built a three-dimensional multicellular spheroid research model that mimics the actual environment in the human body and used it to analyze the medicinal efficacy of various natural products and natural product analogues with an image-based screening platform. The derived drug candidates were effective each in loosening fibrous hepatocytes, restoring lung cells, and in treating and preventing radiation-induced damages in lung and skin cells. This research is being carried out as part of the BioMedical Technology Development Project supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT, including the Bio-Synergy Research Project with Medicinal Heritage.

 

KEY Bio, in collaboration with IPK, will conduct follow-up R&D for commercialization of drug candidates, including preclinical and clinical trials. KEY Bio is a drug development company formed by a Korean medicine doctor with abundant clinical experience, a medical doctor with professional expertise, and a preclinical expert with veterinary qualifications. Applying her outstanding expertise in Korean and herbal medicine, CEO Meekyung Park serves as an advisor for the Bio-Synergy Research Project with Medicinal Heritage and has been providing professional insight based on an in-depth understanding of the project conducted by IPK. Through this collaboration, KEY Bio, having highly evaluated the drug candidates that IPK discovered, will be leading commercialization of the drug candidates by rapidly demonstrating their efficacy in clinical trials and step up in solving many of the unresolved challenges in modern medicine related to fibrosis. 

 

Additionally, the two organizations agreed to cooperate in promoting the use of natural product pharmaceuticals. They plan to separate and precisely analyze the active substances from the natural products and medical herbs for which clinical efficacy has been confirmed, to standardize and quantify according to the purpose of treatment. Based on this, they will synthesize the active substances in large quantities, which will help in reducing drug costs. Moreover, patient convenience may be increased by diversifying drugs into pills, syrup, granules, and tablets. 

 

The IPK CEO Dr. Youngmee Jee revealed, “Through our collaboration with KEY Bio we will accelerate the development of natural product therapeutics utilizing IPK’s expertise in drug discovery and translate outstanding research results to commercialization.” 

 

The KEY Bio CEO Meekyung Park said, “We are excited to collaborate with Institut Pasteur Korea which possesses a world-class level of competitiveness. Through this collaboration, we will do our best to successfully develop new therapeutics based on natural products and natural product analogues and create a ‘best collaboration case’.”