The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 24th that the total number of global technology exports in 2020 by domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Promotion Agency, including the full-cycle new drug development project of all ministries, in 2020, amounted to about 6.8 trillion won. This is an amount equivalent to 67% of the total amount of technology export contracts for domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies in 2020 announced by the Pharmaceutical Bio Association in December of last year.
In particular, bio-venture companies such as Alteogen, Voronoi, and Legochem Bioscience showed strength at 84% of the total. The main focus was on the achievements of open innovation (open innovation) in which global pharmaceutical companies receive technology transfer and develop original technologies and new drug candidates developed by bio-venture companies.
Alteogen’s ALT-B4, supported by the Ministry of Health, is a human recombinant hyaluronic acid degrading enzyme that can replace intravenous antibody and protein drug formulations with subcutaneous drugs. It was developed through Alteogen’s self-developed subcutaneous injection formulation modification platform technology (Hybrozyme), and the Ministry of Health and Welfare expects that additional technology exports will take place in the future through the use of such platform technology.
Yuhan Corporation’s YH12852 is a gastrointestinal disease treatment and was transferred to the US after successfully completing preclinical toxicity and phase 1 clinical trials in Korea. Phase 2 clinical trials are planned in the United States in 2021.
SK Biopharm’s Cenovamate is Korea’s first anti-epileptic drug and has independently carried out the entire process from discovery of candidate substances to global clinical development and marketing approval. In recent years, it has achieved technology transfer performance of up to 5788 billion won (down payment 55.4 billion won, commercialization achievement technology fee 524.3 billion won and royalties) to Japan. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare expected to achieve the first global blockbuster drug with more than 1 trillion won in sales in the future.
Voronoi’s VRN07 is a new drug candidate that can selectively act on non-small cell lung cancer caused by gene (Exon 20 insertion) mutation, and is expected to be an effective treatment method for mutant non-small cell lung cancer and solid cancer patients suffering from general chemotherapy. The Ministry of Welfare expected.
Legochem Bioscience’s LCB67 is a new drug candidate that selectively acts on cell lung cancer, liver cancer and various solid cancers. It was developed through self-developed next-generation platform technology ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugate), and succeeded in global technology transfer of a total of 4 candidate substances using next-generation platform technology, including LCB67 last year, to the US, China, and Europe. did.
Hyeon Soo-yop, a high-tech medical support officer at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, “Because of the challenging R&D and bold investments of private companies, we were able to achieve the highest technology export performance ever. Although it is small compared to the scale of private investment, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s R&D support project is positioning itself as an innovation partner that shares the risk of developing new drugs.
In addition, he said, “From 2021, we plan to further strengthen full-cycle support through national research and development projects (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) by removing partitions between ministries from basic research to commercialization of new drug development.”
Major technology export performance of R&D business in new drug development field by Ministry of Health and Welfare (2020)
| year month | Company name | product (Substance) name |
Kinds | Technology transfer amount (Advance payment) |
Technology transfer company | Government support project |
| ‘20.06 | Alteogen | ALT-B4 Platform technology |
Source technology for hypodermic injection | KRW 4 trillion KRW 700 billion (KRW 19.2 billion) |
Top 10 global pharmaceutical companies | Pan-Ministry Full-cycle new drug development project* |
| ‘20.08 | Yuhan Corporation | YH12852 | Functional Gastrointestinal disease treatment |
KRW 4872 billion (2.4 billion won) |
U.S./Processor Pharmasutical | Advanced medical technology development business |
| ‘20.10 | SK Biopharm | Senobamate | Epilepsy treatment | KRW 5788 billion (54.5 billion won) |
Japan/Ono Pharmaceutical Industry | Pan-Ministry Full-cycle new drug development project* |
| ‘20.10 | Voronoi | VRN07 | Candidate drug for mutant non-small cell cancer and solid cancer treatment | KRW 720 billion (14.8 billion won) |
US/Oric | Advanced medical technology development business |
| ‘20.12 | Legochem Bioscience | LCB67 | Anticancer drug ADC* candidate LCB67 *Antibody-Drug Conjugate |
KRW 325.5 billion (10.5 billion won) |
USA/Pixis On Cology | Advanced medical technology development business |
* Joint support of 3 ministries (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy)