NextnBio and Elbase Collaborate on Organoid-Based Anticancer Drug Development Research

Bio platform company NextN Bio announced on the 19th that it has signed a joint research memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Elbase, a company specializing in anticancer drug development, to develop anticancer drugs using organoid-based drug evaluation technology.

Yang Ji-hoon, CEO of Next & Bio (right), is taking a commemorative photo with Jeon Do-yong, CEO of Elbase, after signing an MOU.

The signing ceremony held on the 18th at Elbase headquarters in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul was attended by Jihoon Yang, CEO of NextN Bio, and Doyong Jeon, CEO of Elbase. Based on this agreement, NextN Bio plans to evaluate the efficacy of the anticancer drug candidate ‘LB217’ using cancer organoids cultured from lung and colorectal cancer patient specimens, and Elbase plans to use this data to apply for clinical trial approval (IND) from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) next year.

Cancer organoids are known to show higher accuracy compared to cell-line based models using patient samples, which are traditionally used in anticancer drug development. Cell lines mainly use tumor tissues taken from cancer patients, but have been criticized for reliability issues due to genetic mutations. In contrast, organoids can stably maintain patient genetic information for a long time compared to two-dimensional cell lines and allow repeated testing of drugs at various concentrations, making them useful as a large-scale drug screening platform.

Jihoon Yang, CEO of NextN Bio, said, “Through this agreement, we will cooperate to enable ‘LB217’ to quickly enter the IND stage. This will be a meaningful study demonstrating that patient-derived organoid data can be used as valid efficacy evaluation data.”

Meanwhile, NextN Bio is conducting multiple projects for cell therapy and anticancer drug development based on organoid standardization technology. In addition, the company is engaged in new drug efficacy analysis and animal alternative analysis services, precision medical diagnostics, and medical device businesses.

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