The establishment of Revatio is to expand its business to CDMO and development of new drugs in the cell therapy field based on the experience of consignment development and production (CDMO) such as existing oligonucleotides and mRNA gene therapy products.
In San Diego, USA, research centers of global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, and Novartis, and biotechs such as IONIS and Alnylam form a cluster, so active joint research and technical export discussions It is easy.
ST Pharm recruited and appointed Dr. Ji Hyun-bae as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and CEO of Revatio.
Dr. Ji Hyeon-bae is a global expert in the field of anticancer and immunology, who has been researching immune anticancer drugs and autoimmune diseases for 27 years. He received his Ph.D. from the Chicago Medical School in the United States, went through a postdoctoral course at the Scripps Institute, and worked at the Harvard Medical School, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Cancer Institute at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He has also participated in the development of new anticancer drugs at biotech OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Ambrx.
Revatio plans to build a circular RNA (circRNA) and CAR-NKT platform, and focus on the development of immunotherapy drugs and autoimmune disease drugs.
Unlike linear mRNA, circular RNA has a 2.5 times longer half-life and stable compared to linear mRNA due to its high resistance to nuclease because the 3′(3 prime) and 5′(5 prime) ends are connected to each other.
Recently, as evidence for the association between circular RNA and diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s continues to be revealed, the development of therapeutic agents using circular RNA is starting. Orna Therapeutics, which develops a prototype RNA anticancer drug, has attracted a $100 million Series A investment.
NKT is an immune cell that has the characteristics of both T cells and NK cells. Existing CAR-T platform treatments that exhibit excellent immune anticancer effects are difficult to mass-produce and high cost due to individual patient-specific production, but new CAR-NKT platform treatments extract and use NKT cells from healthy people, resulting in mass production and cost reduction. It is possible and has the advantage of being able to develop a product as an off-the-shelf (standardized product) due to its low immune rejection reaction.
In the future, Revatio will build its own technology to proliferate CD4+ NKT cells that can treat more than 100 autoimmune diseases and CD8+ NKT cells that can remove cancer cells, and use mRNA or circRNA to improve the function of NKT cells. It is also planning to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases.
An official of ST Pharm said, “Laryngeal cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc.” It was announced on the 5th that it had been established.
The establishment of Revatio is to expand its business to CDMO and development of new drugs in the cell therapy field based on the experience of consignment development and production (CDMO) such as existing oligonucleotides and mRNA gene therapy products.
In San Diego, USA, research institutes of global pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, and Novartis and biotechs such as IONIS and Alnylam form a cluster, so active joint research and technical export discussions It is easy.
ST Pharm hired and appointed Dr. Ji Hyun-bae as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and CEO of Revatio.
Dr. Ji Hyeon-bae is a global expert in the field of anticancer and immunology, who has been researching immune anticancer drugs and autoimmune diseases for 27 years. He received his Ph.D. from the Chicago Medical School in the United States, went through a postdoctoral course at the Scripps Institute, and worked at the Harvard Medical School, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Cancer Institute at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He has also participated in the development of new anticancer drugs at biotech OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Ambrx.
Revatio plans to build a circular RNA (circRNA) and CAR-NKT platform, and focus on the development of immunotherapy drugs and autoimmune disease drugs.
Unlike linear mRNA, circular RNA has a high resistance to nuclease because the 3′(3 prime) and 5′(5 prime) ends are connected to each other, so the half-life is 2.5 times longer than that of linear mRNA and is stable.
Recently, as evidence for the association between circular RNA and diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s continues to be revealed, the development of therapeutic agents using circular RNA is starting. Orna Therapeutics, which develops a prototype RNA anticancer drug, has attracted a $100 million Series A investment.
NKT is an immune cell that has the characteristics of both T cells and NK cells. Existing CAR-T platform treatments that exhibit excellent immune anticancer effects are difficult to mass-produce and high cost due to individual patient-specific production, but new CAR-NKT platform treatments extract and use NKT cells from healthy people, resulting in mass production and cost reduction. It is possible and has the advantage of being able to develop a product as an off-the-shelf (standardized product) due to its low immune rejection reaction.
In the future, Revatio will build its own technology to proliferate CD4+ NKT cells that can treat more than 100 autoimmune diseases and CD8+ NKT cells that can remove cancer cells, and use mRNA or circRNA to improve the function of NKT cells. It is also planning to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases.
An official of Estipham said, “Revatio plans to establish four new drug pipelines by 2022 to develop therapeutics for laryngeal cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, autoimmune diseases, and enter global clinical trials from 2023.” , “We will lead the new therapeutic field through the technology of the CAR-NKT platform, and through this, ST Pharm will create a synergy by expanding its business to CDMO, a gene therapy product and a cell therapy product.”