Medytox Subsidiary Livium Raises 7 Billion KRW in Series A Funding
by Lee Gwanju
Published 25 Apr.2022 09:46(KST)
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Candidate 'LIV001'
Non-Clinical Trials to Complete This Year, Aiming for Global Clinical Trials Next Year
[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Medytox announced on the 25th that its subsidiary Livieom has secured a Series A investment worth 7 billion KRW from Lindeman Asia Investment.
Livieom is a microorganism research-based new drug development specialized company established last year after receiving microbiome therapeutic (LBP) candidate substances and related technologies from Medytox. It possesses the core technology of the ‘Dual LBP Platform’ and derives candidate substances using the natural microbiome-based ‘N-LBP’ platform and the next-generation platform ‘E-LBP,’ which maximizes therapeutic effects through gene editing technology.
With this investment, Livieom plans to accelerate clinical trials of its main pipeline, the inflammatory bowel disease treatment ‘LIV001,’ and speed up research and development of follow-up pipelines such as anticancer drugs. LIV001 has completed efficacy verification such as inflammation suppression and immune response stabilization in animal model experiments, and since January, it has been producing clinical trial drugs with global contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) including Luina Bio in Australia and Quay Pharma in the UK. Livieom plans to complete non-clinical trials of LIV001 within this year and enter global clinical trials next year.
Song Ji-yoon, CEO of Livieom, said, “This investment has laid a significant foundation for the global clinical initiation of the inflammatory bowel disease treatment LIV001 under development,” adding, “We will also proceed smoothly with clinical preparations for the anticancer drug ‘LIV002,’ which is under development as a follow-up pipeline, accelerating the development of targeted treatments for intractable diseases.”
Livieom is a microorganism-based new drug development specialized company founded by researchers who were in charge of the microorganism therapeutic field at Medytox. In addition to LIV001 and LIV002, it holds various pipelines including transplantation disease (LIV003) and immune disease (LIV004).
Medytox is pursuing a business expansion strategy through technology transfer. Besides Livieom, it has licensed technology to Santeur Bioscience, which is developing an innovative antibody platform. Santeur successfully secured 20 billion KRW in Series A investment last month and is accelerating its research and development.
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