Korean Leading institute-industry collaboration embark on innovative drug discovery

Summary
Institut Pasteur Korea(IP-K) and Green Cross agreed on MOU for joint compounds library establishment, seeking for active future collaboration. The joint compounds will be purchased collaboratively by both entities and will be kept and maintained at IP-K by its accumulated know-how and technology.

Throughout the MOU, both organizations are targeting to build a cornerstone for actual collaborative research projects and to obtain more than twice larger amount of compound library by collaboration. Compound library is used for HTS/HCS screening applied drug discovery research and the more variable and the larger amount of compound library leads to the better chance to find drug candidates.

Green Cross has built reputation in vaccines and biologics and now planning to expand the business scope to small molecule drug discovery. The president B.G. Lee said, "Green Cross is planning to expand its pipeline to small molecule drug discovery targeting therapy for rare diseases and new anti-cancer agent and we selected IP-K in acknowledgement of its advanced drug discovery screening technology.”

Throughout this MOU IP-K will not only strengthen its drug discovery competitiveness by securing new compound library but also accelerate the drug discovery process of Korea by spreading its advanced technology to the leading Korean pharma. IP-K has been operating innovative HTS/HCS technology with about 200 thousands chemical compounds. Its technology has proven from previous collaborations with global pharmaceuticals as a selected partner for their open innovation technology, and IPK will contribute to reinforce the drug discovery capability of Korea by spread out the benefit of its core technology to domestic pharmaceuticals.

Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of IP-K, said, "At IP-K we have succeeded in implementing imaging in drug discovery, which both facilitates and accelerates the way from basic research to innovative drug candidates. IP-K stands for innovative technology “Made-in-Korea”, which is now being put into the service of Korean Pharma. This agreement signifies a strategic turning point for IP-K. Together with our partner Green Cross we will be able to demonstrate that Korea can make an international impact in innovative drug development. I am very exited about our future cooperation."