[이코노믹리뷰=황진중 기자] Yuhan Corporation (000100) announced on the 23rd that it has invested an additional 10 billion won in April Bio, which has Serum Albumin Fragment Associated (SAFA) technology, adding its existing stake to become the second largest shareholder.
Established in 2013, April Bio is a company specializing in new antibody drugs that develops global innovative new drugs in various therapeutic areas using its proprietary human antibody library (HuDVFab) technology and SAFA, a sustained platform technology that can increase the half-life of antibody fragment utilization.
April Bio is preparing for phase 1 clinical trial in the United States this year, APB-A1, a preclinical inflammatory autoimmune disease treatment (IL-18 target), APB-R3, male infertility treatment (FSH target) APB -R2, etc. are being developed.
Recently, April Bio decided to issue a paid-in capital increase of 10 billion won worth to a third party for Yuhan Corporation. In 2020, it attracted 18 billion won worth of Series B investment, and at that time, Yuhan Corporation as a strategic investor (SI) invested 3 billion won in April Bio to acquire a 4.89% stake.
Yuhan Corporation and April Bio have signed a business agreement to develop new drugs for joint research and are strengthening research cooperation.
The reason why Yuhan Corporation, an existing strategic investor (SI), made additional investments is that April Bio’s unique platform technology, SAFA, is recognized for its excellence, and it seems that it will further accelerate joint research using it in the future.
Meanwhile, April Bio is preparing for a special listing through technology evaluation on the KOSDAQ market this year. Major financial investors are LB Investment, TS Investment, Hana Financial Investment, Ebest Investment & Securities, SJ Investment Partners, Daekyo Investment, Mirae Equity Partners, SM Cino Technology Investment, BSK Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, and Kolon Investment.