Dawon Medax Signs MOU with OmniaMed for Next-Generation Boron Delivery System Development

Dawon Medax CEO Moo-Young Yoo (center left) and Omnia Med CEO Won-Jong Kim (center right) are posing after signing a business agreement. Photo by Dawon Medax

Daewon Medax (CEO Park Seon-soon, Yoo Moo-young), the first domestic company specializing in accelerator-based Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) development, announced on the 14th that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for mutual cooperation with OmniaMed (CEO Kim Won-jong) on the 7th to develop and commercialize a new boron delivery agent to be used in BNCT.

BNCT is an advanced radiation therapy method that uses a nuclear fission reaction occurring when neutrons meet boron selectively accumulated in tumors, destroying only cancer cells without damaging normal cells. It is called the "dream cancer treatment" because it can be applied to patients with malignant brain tumors, recurrent cancer, and infiltrative cancers that are difficult to treat surgically.

With current scientific technology, neutrons cannot be produced directly; instead, protons are accelerated and then neutrons are generated through nuclear reactions with a target device. The linear proton accelerator for BNCT developed by Daewon Medax is currently being used in clinical trials for high-grade glioma and head and neck cancer, and its technology has been recognized for treatment efficacy and safety.

OmniaMed is a company specializing in the development of tissue-selective drug delivery platforms and is developing polymer nanoparticle (PNP) delivery agents, a next-generation delivery system that can replace lipid nanoparticles (LNP), one of the core technologies of mRNA therapeutics that have rapidly emerged as vaccines and treatments after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yoo Moo-young, CEO of Daewon Medax, said, "There were many difficulties in developing BNCT purely with domestic technology and capital, and we expect the process of advancing it to be even more challenging. We hope to secure international competitiveness through the development of new boron delivery agents in cooperation with OmniaMed."

Kim Won-jong, CEO of OmniaMed, stated, "We are pleased to participate in the development of BNCT, a new cancer treatment method. To increase the efficiency of cancer treatment using BNCT, boron must be selectively delivered to tumors, and we aim to maximize anticancer treatment efficiency by integrating OmniaMed’s polymer drug targeting technology with BNCT technology."

Meanwhile, Daewon Medax received A grades from two institutions in the technology evaluation for special listing based on technology in October last year. The company is preparing to enter the KOSDAQ market this year.

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