Dainona Accelerates Development of COVID-19 Antibody Therapeutics... 22 Billion KRW Rights Offering

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] SMAC, a KOSDAQ-listed company, announced that its subsidiary Dynona is securing large-scale funding to develop new drugs, including an antibody treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

On the 9th, Dynona revealed that it will conduct a paid-in capital increase worth 22 billion KRW through a rights offering to existing shareholders. The number of newly issued shares will be 7,888,878. The planned issue price is 2,850 KRW per share. Korea Investment & Securities will act as the lead manager, finalize the issue price on May 28, and conduct subscription in early June. The new shares will be listed on June 22.

SMAC, the major shareholder holding 23.81% of the shares, plans to actively support new drug development by participating in the capital increase. The unexercised rights will be fully subscribed by the largest shareholder and related parties, which is interpreted as confidence in the development of the COVID-19 antibody treatment.

An SMAC official stated, "Recently, successful cases of curing severely infected patients through plasma therapy have emerged, increasing expectations for Dynona, which has strengths in antibody treatment," and added, "The major shareholder will take a responsible stance to accelerate the development of the treatment."

Dynona intends to accelerate the development of COVID-19 virus treatments once the funds are raised. Currently, it is developing treatments using two approaches: regulating the human immune system and directly inhibiting the virus. Through the clinical-stage candidate ‘DNP002,’ it is developing a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) related to cytokine storms. Additionally, it has established a strategy to develop neutralizing antibodies to block the virus using blood from recovered COVID-19 patients.

For DNP002, Dynona has already participated in a demand survey by the National Primate Center of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology to verify efficacy against the COVID-19 virus. Preparations have also been completed for isolating COVID-19 virus-specific B cells and securing antibody sequences to discover neutralizing antibodies that block the virus.

Dynona will use part of the raised funds for Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of DNP002, a solid tumor antibody treatment candidate co-developed with the National Cancer New Drug Development Project Group. DNP002, which will undergo Phase 1 clinical trials at Seoul Asan Medical Center, is an antibody drug that can simultaneously target tumors and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) originating from neutrophils.

Dynona is also preparing for Phase 1 clinical trials of its second main pipeline, DNP007. DNP007 is a new antibody drug candidate for autoimmune diseases developed as part of the Ministry of Industry’s Smart Bio Production System Development Project, following the Pan-Government New Drug Development Project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.