SK Plasma, Transitioning from a 'Blood Product Company' to a 'Rare and Intractable Disease' Company

Implementing 'NRDO' Strategy to Secure Pipeline
Securing CAR-T Therapeutics through Qurocell SI Participation

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] SK Plasma, once a 'specialized blood product company,' is pushing to leap forward as a rare and intractable disease company through the introduction of new drug candidate substances.

On the 13th, SK Plasma announced that it will intensify its investment project in the rare and intractable disease business, which it has been conducting with Tium Bio and Korea Investment Partners since last year. SK Plasma attracted 110 billion KRW in investment from SK Discovery, Tium, and Korea Investment Partners through a paid-in capital increase last year.

Based on the funds secured through this, SK Plasma has been operating an 'NRDO (No Research Development only)' organization to secure a new drug pipeline in the field of rare and intractable diseases. NRDO is a new R&D strategy that, unlike traditional research and development (R&D) covering the entire drug development process from basic research and candidate substance discovery ('research') to clinical trials-focused 'development,' focuses on commercialization research and development by introducing new drug candidates discovered and developed externally.

Kim Yoon-ho, CEO of SK Plasma (Photo by SK Plasma)

The first NRDO project selected by SK Plasma is CureCell's CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) therapy. To this end, SK Plasma recently participated as a strategic investor (SI) in CureCell's pre-IPO and plans to jointly promote domestic and international commercialization of CureCell and CAR-T therapies as an SI going forward.

CAR-T therapy is an advanced anticancer cell therapy that separates a patient's immune cells, genetically modifies them, mass-cultures them, and then re-administers them to the patient. Anticancer immunotherapy activates the patient's immune function to treat cancer, so it is known to have relatively fewer side effects, and CAR-T therapy shows higher therapeutic effects than existing treatments, earning it the nickname 'dream anticancer drug.'

The two companies plan to expand their cooperation to develop higher-level CAR-T technologies, beyond existing autologous and hematologic cancer-targeted therapies using the patient's own immune cells, to include allogeneic and solid tumor-targeted therapies based on donor or other individuals' cells.

SK Plasma plans to gradually increase its rare and intractable disease treatment pipeline. Centered on the NRDO organization, it will continuously and meticulously review new drug candidates to discover them and expand the pipeline through cooperation with partner companies.

Kim Yoon-ho, CEO of SK Plasma, said, “Rare and intractable disease treatments are a meaningful field because they alleviate the hardships of countless patients who must endure lifelong suffering due to the absence of treatments, beyond economic value,” adding, “Through an NRDO-centered R&D strategy, we will continuously discover new drug candidates and become a specialized pharmaceutical company in the rare and intractable disease field.”

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