▲ Elgen Therapeutics CEO Hyunseop Tae (left), and Interpark Bio Convergence CEO Koo Lee PhD (right)

Interpark Bio Convergence announced on April 14th that it has signed a research collaboration agreement for targeted protein degradation (TPD) anticancer drug candidates with Elgen Therapeutics. The collaboration aims to facilitate the discovery of TPD drug candidates through mutual cooperation.

According to the research agreement, both companies will establish a ‘Joint Research Operating Committee’ to formulate specific research collaboration plans and regularly share and discuss research progress. Through this, they seek to strengthen cooperation in the development of new TPD anticancer agents, including drug candidate discovery, commercialization strategies, and profit-sharing post-commercialization.

The two companies plan to discover drug candidates through research collaboration by early 2024, before proceeding to preclinical development. Their goal is to secure licensing agreements with leading global pharmaceutical companies in the future.

TPD technology is gaining widespread recognition as a novel modality capable of targeting proteins previously considered undruggable using small molecule inhibitors, thus overcoming drug resistance. The TPD approach is anticipated to enhance selectivity and efficacy for targeted proteins compared to traditional inhibitors.

Interpark Bio Convergence CEO Koo Lee PhD stated, "The synergy between Elgen Therapeutics' TPD platform technology and Interpark Bio Convergence's strengths in small molecule drug design and drug optimization R&D will pave the way for discovering innovative targeted anticancer agents that set themselves apart from existing drugs."

Hyunseop Tae, CEO of Elgen Therapeutics, remarked, "As partners with Interpark Bio Convergence in the research and development of new anticancer agents based on PROTAC platforms, this collaboration is expected to serve as a successful model for developing next-generation innovative targeted protein degradation anticancer drug candidates."

Interpark Bio Convergence, established in 2020 as a subsidiary of Interpark and iMarket Korea, is a biotech company specializing in the research and development of small molecule anticancer drug candidates. Koo Lee PhD, who served as the Director of R&D Innovation Center and Quality Management Center at LG Life Sciences, leads the company's ongoing research and development efforts across five new drug pipelines. Notably, their leading project aims to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the solid tumor-targeting immunotherapy agent IBC-1131 in the second half of this year, while IBC-2121, targeting non-small cell lung cancer, is undergoing drug candidate discovery for preclinical study.

Elgen Therapeutics, founded in 2019, is a biotech company focusing on researching and developing anticancer drug candidates targeting epigenetic regulatory proteins using TPD platform technology. It was co-founded by CEO Hyunseop Tae, who participated in the development of the PROTAC platform for 7 years in the research team led by Professor Craig Crews (founder of Arvinas, a company specializing in PROTAC development), and Professor In-hyun Park, a world-renowned scientist in the field of stem cells and epigenetics at Yale School of Medicine.

Source: BioSpectator (http://www.biospectator.com/view/news_view.php?varAtcId=15513)