Merck Awards Ceremony for Promising Bio Startup Discovery Contest

BioOrchestra, Curigen, PharmAbcine
DeNovo Therapeutics, UpThera, and 5 Other Companies

Merck announced on the 17th that it held the award ceremony for the 1st ‘2023 Korea Advance Biotech Grant Program’ on the 13th.

At the 2023 Promising Bio Startup Discovery Contest, awardees and related personnel, including Sim Sang-ryeol, Director of PharmAbcine; Kim Seong-hoon, Director of Upthera; Ryu Jin-hyeop, CEO of BioOrchestra; Kim Yong-seok, Head of Merck Life Science Process Solutions North Asia Business; Yoo Joong-gi, Head of Curigen; and Park Heung-rok, Vice President of Denovotherapeutics (from left), are taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Merck Life Science]

This contest was organized by Merck to understand the challenges faced by promising domestic biotech startups and to support the development and commercialization of next-generation promising pharmaceuticals, aiming to promote the advancement of the domestic biotech startup industry. Korean biopharmaceutical (excluding natural products) development companies participated, and after evaluation by M-Ventures, a venture capital company under the Merck Group, and Merck’s bioprocessing experts, a total of five companies advanced to the finals.

The five companies that advanced to the finals are ▲BioOrchestra ▲Curigen ▲PharmAbcine ▲Denovotherapeutics ▲UpThera. All were selected as finalists and awardees by receiving high scores in areas such as technological completeness, novelty, and growth potential.

The grand prize, the ‘Merck Grand Award,’ was awarded to BioOrchestra. BioOrchestra is a biotech company developing a brain-specific drug delivery system (BDDS) platform technology and RNA drugs for degenerative brain diseases. It was honored with the grand prize for its superior brain permeability compared to existing commercialized central nervous system drug delivery systems (CNS DDS) and its high scalability, capable of encapsulating various active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) ranging from RNA to future antibodies and synthetic drugs.

The award-winning companies, including BioOrchestra, also conducted company presentation sessions at the ceremony. Going forward, these companies will receive Merck products and services according to the criteria set for their respective awards.

Kim Yong-seok, Head of Merck Life Science Process Solutions North Asia Business, said, “This contest was a very valuable journey as it allowed Merck to support the drug development and commercialization processes of domestic biotech startups with excellent capabilities. We will continue to provide tailored support to help the award-winning companies advance their unique technologies and expand opportunities to grow together with promising startups.”

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