Syntekabio Builds AI Solution Applicable to Entire Drug Development Process

[Startup Nurtured by Seoul City] Seoul Startup Growth Center Support as a Stepping Stone... Technology Special Case KOSDAQ Listing

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] On the 16th, Syntekabio announced that it would collaborate with Hanmi Science to develop a treatment for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Using its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) platform technology, the company identifies COVID-19 treatment candidate substances from existing drugs to develop new medications. This approach is faster and more efficient than new drug development, which requires evaluation of efficacy, side effects, and quality, because it is based on drugs with established safety.

Syntekabio is a bio-venture established in 2009 with a business model that applies AI technology to new drug development. From 2012 to 2014, it received 250 million KRW in commercialization funds through the Seoul Startup Growth Center, along with support for joint research with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and public technology transfer from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). By participating in the Seoul Startup Growth Center’s global expansion program, 'Silicon Valley Technomart,' it attracted investments from global venture capitalists (VCs) such as Altos Ventures and the Yozma Group, who recognized its business potential. During this process, Syntekabio built an AI solution applicable to the entire new drug development cycle, from discovering drug candidates to clinical development and post-market marketing.

In July last year, the company secured investments worth 20 billion KRW from Yuhan Corporation and others, and in December, it succeeded in entering the KOSDAQ market through a technology growth special case. It was the first AI startup in Korea to be listed. A Seoul city official cited Syntekabio’s growth process as a model example of advanced country-style accelerating that supports startups by establishing technology commercialization funds at the early stages of entrepreneurship.

Syntekabio is also developing algorithms applicable to anticancer vaccines (biopharmaceuticals) that can expect different effects for each cancer patient. Yoon Sun-il, Chief Business Officer (pictured), said, "The new drug candidate for immune anticancer agents is expected to enter clinical trials by the first half of 2022 at the latest," adding, "The COVID-19 treatment candidate substances also demonstrated the potential to create repurposed drugs by using AI to search for candidate drugs much faster than cell experiments."

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