OCI Strengthens Bio Business with 5 Billion KRW Investment in 'Panoros Biosciences'

Establishing Business Models for R&D Collaboration Including Platform Technology Sharing

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] OCI is strengthening its bio business capabilities by deciding to invest in Panoros Biosciences, a domestic bio venture company that possesses anticancer drug candidate substances and multifunctional recombinant protein technology.

OCI announced on the 26th that it has signed a 5 billion KRW investment contract with Panoros Biosciences, a promising domestic bio venture company. Through this investment, OCI plans to establish various business models for research and development collaboration, including platform technology sharing, as a shareholder of Panoros Biosciences.

Panoros is developing new biological therapeutics using its proprietary multi-specific drug generation platform, αARTTM (Anti-angiogenesis-based Artifact Re-targeting Tri-specifics platform). This platform can reduce side effects associated with single-target protein therapeutics and has excellent potential to expand the new drug pipeline through multi-targeting.

The next-generation anticancer drug candidate based on the αARTTM platform, 'PB101,' targets all isoforms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)2 excessively produced around cancer cells (VEGF-A, VEGF-B, Placental Growth Factor) to inhibit cancer cell growth.

Unlike existing VEGF inhibitor therapies that target only some VEGF isoforms, PB101 blocks all delivery pathways, reducing drug resistance and enhancing efficacy. PB101 has completed the development of a mass production process and aims to start preclinical3 trials in May and enter Phase 1 clinical trials in 2022.

The VEGF inhibitor therapy market is expected to reach approximately 10 billion USD in 2023, with an annual growth rate exceeding 8%. It is actively used not only in anticancer drugs but also in ophthalmic disease fields, making it a market with very high growth potential.

Kim Taek-jung, President of OCI, said, "Through a strategic partnership with Panoros Biosciences, which possesses innovative platform technology, we will be able to secure expertise in the anticancer drug field." He added, "OCI will continuously seek investment opportunities in promising bio venture companies and pipelines with potential for development into global new drugs."

Meanwhile, since entering the biopharmaceutical industry in 2018, OCI has strengthened partnerships with domestic and international bio innovation companies. In 2019, OCI invested in domestic bio venture company SN BioScience and Israeli bio company Nucleix.

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