GGBC, Inserm, IPK and Inserm Transfert Signed
Co-Research Agreement for Drug Development at the Inauguration Ceremony

April 28, 2009, Seoul, S. Korea ? Gyeonggi Bio Center (Chairman: Yung-bok Chae, hereinafter ‘GGBC’), Inserm (President and CEO : Prof. Andre Syrota), Institut Pasteur Korea (Director: Ulf Nehrbass, hereinafter ‘IPK’) and Inserm Transfert (the Inserm’s private subsidiary dedicated to technology transfer; CEO : Cecile Tharaud) announced that they signed a cooperative agreement for the reinforcement of drug development capabilities on April 28, 2009, securing a domestic and global competitive-edge alliance through a strategic quadripartite collaboration.

While the Korean pharma industry has so far based its success on excellence in the generic market, innovative pharma development is an important next critical step by securing the creative and competitive bases of bio-tech basic research.

By bringing INSERM’s excellent basic research outcomes to Korean Pharma industry or carrying out the translational research activities in the partnership, this strategic collaboration is designed to offer new solutions to drug development pitfalls, which result in developing and providing the new drug candidates Korean Pharma companies need.

INSERM, the French National Institute of Health and Biomedical Research is the foremost medical research network in Europe and incorporates over 13,000 researchers, each performing medical and applied research in over 800 units and laboratories within French hospitals.

As an expert in translational research, IPK has the world-class capabilities to provide its cell-based HTS (high throughout screening) expertise and has carried out the innovative drug discovery projects with the catchphrase of ‘Genome to Drug’

GGBC is supposed to develop and support the drug discovery projects in carefully chosen medical disease areas by connecting these research and development opportunities with the needs of Korean Pharma companies.

Through this agreement, the parties expect to generate innovative value out of the synergies they will draw from their complementary expertise. This collaborative research initiative provides the Korean Pharma companies with a clear opportunity to have access to new therapeutical chemical entities.

On the same day, the additional seminar will be held by Inserm Transfert which plays a role of bringing its expertise both in intellectual property and technology transfer to help licensing joint innovations to Korean and International biotechnology /pharmaceutical companies.

Moon-soo Kim, Governor of Gyeong-gi Province and Phillip Thiehbaud, French Ambassador to Korea, Joon-sun Uh, Chairman of Korean Pharmaceutical Associations are supposed to join the agreement ceremony.

In August 2008, Inserm-GGBC-IPK signed a MOU for the drug development collaboration before GGBC held the 3 technology seminars to provide INSERM’s basic research outcomes and technology transfer including Diabetes, Mental Disorder, MS, and Cancer.

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Contact Points
? Dr. Sung-hyun Hong/GGBC: 82-31-888-6021/82-10-4500-4514, shhong@ggbc.or.kr
? Sinae Bae/ IPK: 82-2-3299-0207/82-11-9903-4093, sinae@ip-korea.org


See the detailed Korean version of the press release attached