Daewoong-Hanol Bio Jointly Invest in US Parkinson's Treatment Developer

Daewoong Pharmaceutical and HanAll Biopharma announced on the 13th that they will jointly invest in Vincere Biosciences, a Parkinson's disease drug developer located in Cambridge near Boston, USA.

Daewoong Pharmaceutical, Hanall Biopharma, Vincer Bioscience logos (from left) [Photo by Daewoong Pharmaceutical]

With this investment, the three companies plan to explore collaboration opportunities utilizing Vincere's AI platform not only for the development of Parkinson's disease treatments but also for clinical trial design and patient candidate selection.

Vincere is a bio company founded in 2018 by Dr. Spring Behrouz, a leading authority on Parkinson's disease. Using its proprietary AI platform, the company is developing treatments for degenerative diseases caused by aging, such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dementia. When mitochondria inside cells are damaged or reach the end of their lifespan, a process called 'Mitophagy' occurs, where the cell removes the damaged mitochondria. If this function does not operate smoothly, it can cause neurodegeneration, muscle weakness, and further lead to degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Vincere's candidate substances aim to enhance mitophagy activity in the body, increase the proportion of healthy mitochondria, and inhibit the progression of Parkinson's disease.

Recognizing this, Vincere has received research funding four times since 2019 from the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This foundation was established by Michael J. Fox, a famous Hollywood actor who starred in the movie 'Back to the Future.' Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his 30s in 1998 and has been battling the disease while founding the foundation to develop Parkinson's treatments. In addition, Vincere has also received research grants from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), which supports scientists demonstrating outstanding research achievements and potential.

Seungho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, “We are very pleased to have established a close cooperative relationship with Vincere to accelerate the development of innovative treatments for aging suppression and chronic degenerative diseases, which are among Daewoong Pharmaceutical's recent major target areas.” Seungwon Jeong, CEO of HanAll Biopharma, also said, “Vincere has the potential to completely change the existing approach to Parkinson's disease drug development by integrating AI technology into new drug development. We will share the research know-how of the three companies to create synergy in Parkinson's treatment development and continue to explore cooperation methods in the new drug development process, such as AI-based candidate substance discovery.”

Behrouz, CEO of Vincere, said, “This collaboration is about joining forces to develop disease-modifying treatments for Parkinson's disease. The strategic sharing of clinical research results from Daewoong and HanAll helps deepen the understanding of aging-related degenerative diseases. We look forward to a productive partnership that can quickly provide treatments to Parkinson's patients.”

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