Daewoong Pharmaceutical Collaborates with UK New Drug Developer to Discover Autoimmune Disease Treatments

by Lee Myeonghwan

Published 18 Apr.2023 09:25(KST)

Updated 18 Apr.2023 09:38(KST)

Signature Discovery and Open Collaboration Agreement

Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on the 18th that it has signed an open collaboration agreement with Signature Discovery, a UK-based integrated new drug development company, to discover effective substances for new autoimmune disease drugs.

Exterior view of Daewoong Pharmaceutical headquarters. [Photo by Daewoong Pharmaceutical]

Through this agreement, Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to utilize Signature Discovery's 'Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (FBDD)' and 'Virtual Screening (VS)' technologies to discover new effective substances for autoimmune disease treatments. Additionally, support will be provided in protein science and crystallography to secure efficacy and mechanisms and to accelerate development.

Based on this research, Daewoong Pharmaceutical aims to strengthen its new drug development capabilities in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) field, which is one of the next-generation drug targets.

Signature Discovery, established in 2004, is an integrated new drug discovery company supporting early-stage drug development and research. It provides expertise across a wide range of therapeutic areas and biological therapeutic targets. Since 2011, 22 compounds discovered by the company have entered clinical trial stages, and 41 compounds are in preclinical stages. In addition, it has filed over 170 patents.

Simon Hurst, CEO of Signature Discovery, said, "We are pleased to develop new drugs together with Daewoong Pharmaceutical's talented research team," adding, "We look forward to accelerating Daewoong Pharmaceutical's new drug discovery process and discovering high value-added therapeutic targets and effective substances."

Junseok Park, Head of the New Drug Center at Daewoong Pharmaceutical, stated, "Daewoong Pharmaceutical is actively promoting open collaborations on many innovative platform technologies for more effective global new drug development," and added, "This collaboration with Signature Discovery is expected to present a new milestone for Daewoong Pharmaceutical as it expands its new drug pipeline."