Daesang Holdings Signs Investment Agreement with Amtix Bio... "Full-Scale Launch of Red Bio Business"

Focusing on the Anti-Aging Market... Development of Medical Aesthetics Market, New Drugs, and Drug Delivery Platforms

Daesang Holdings, the holding company of Daesang Group, announced on the 19th that it has signed an investment contract worth a total of 7.5 billion KRW with Antics Bio, a company developing new antifungal drugs, and will expand its investment in the red bio business.

Daesang Group has long identified the bio sector as a future growth engine and is engaged in various businesses related to green (agriculture and food), white (environment and energy), and red (medical and pharmaceutical) bio fields. Among these, the red bio business focuses on targeting the anti-aging market, where Daesang Group can efficiently utilize its 67 years of accumulated assets in the materials sector. The group plans to secure technologies suitable for global trends such as the rapid increase of elderly people with weakened immunity and the rise of infectious diseases due to climate crises, and to actively expand the scale of its red bio business.

To this end, Daesang Holdings has selected Antics Bio, a new drug development company specializing in microbial infectious diseases and related treatments, as an investment target and is making a total investment of 7.5 billion KRW. Antics Bio possesses comprehensive technological capabilities ranging from new target discovery to new substance synthesis and drug delivery. The company has also been recognized for its business potential by winning government projects from major national institutions such as the National New Drug Development Project Group and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

In particular, the main antifungal pipeline, a treatment for onychomycosis (fungal nail infection), has successfully completed Phase 1 clinical trials and is preparing to enter Phase 2 clinical trials in the second quarter of next year. The drug substance 'ATB1651' targets cell wall components unique to fungal cells, offering enhanced safety and efficacy with a completely new mechanism of action different from existing antifungal agents. This substance has already secured patents in major countries including South Korea, the United States, Japan, and China, and is currently undergoing Patent Cooperation Treaty applications in over 30 countries. Additionally, research on this substance was recognized for excellence in academia by being selected as the cover paper of the November 2021 issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (JMC), a leading journal in medicinal chemistry.

Furthermore, Antics Bio is developing a new hyaluronic acid-based material that can be used as a delivery platform for various drugs such as proteins and antibodies. The company is conducting research to optimize this material as a sustained-release drug delivery platform to maintain drug efficacy over a long period after administration. This material can also be applied to various medical aesthetic products such as next-generation fillers, microneedle patches, and skin boosters.

Daesang Group and Antics Bio plan to start by pioneering the medical aesthetics market, a key interest area for customers in the anti-aging field, and expand their business scope using new drugs in immune-related areas such as antifungal and anti-inflammatory treatments, as well as drug delivery platform technologies utilizing biocompatible new materials.

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