Joint development of next-generation gene therapy products using gene expression enhancement platform technology together with GNP Bioscience

REYON Pharmaceutical (representative directors Sunok Jeong and Yonghwan Yoo) announced on the 28th that it has signed a contract with GNP Bioscience (representative directors Sujin Park and Seonghyeon Ho) for joint development and commercialization of next-generation gene therapy products using patented technology for gene delivery and increased expression in vivo in Korea and overseas.

An official at REYON said, "GNP Bioscience is a research and development company established with the aim of developing new drugs such as biopharmaceuticals and natural medicines, and is currently carrying out policy tasks of various government agencies such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Small and Medium Business Administration." He added, "Recently, based on the patent for plasmid DNA-based hemophilia gene therapy filed in December 2017, it is a company with outstanding technology having signed a joint development contract with Beijing Northland Biotech, a leader in the development of gene therapy products in China." He also said, "We also signed a joint development contract with the company in December last year for the production of recombinant virus-based gene therapy products."

He went on to say, “This contract was made to secure platform technology for the development of REYON Pharmaceutical's next-generation gene therapy products. Until now, a number of plasmid DNA-based gene therapy candidates, which have failed in the clinical stage in trials conducted by other bio companies, were mostly limited in that gene delivery and expression efficiency does not produce actual therapeutic effects,” and, “GNP Bioscience's patented technology for enhancing gene delivery and expression in vivo is technology that has the potential to improve therapeutic effects by increasing the gene expression level of existing gene therapy products in vivo by several to several tens of times, as well as dramatically improve on the limitations of the treatment range and route of administration of existing treatments.” He concluded, “If REYON Pharmaceutical incorporates various projects currently under R&D, it is expected that it will not only accelerate the development of next-generation plasmid DNA-based gene therapy products with improved therapeutic effects, but will also be widely used for redevelopment of gene therapy products that have failed to develop due to low expression levels in both Korea and overseas.”

An official at REYON Pharmaceutical said, “REYON Pharmaceutical has been conducting R&D for business expansion into the biopharmaceutical industry and has strived to secure many platform technologies in the production field.” He added, “New drug pipelines in various fields are being established through active open innovation through a number of Korean and overseas bio-ventures with technology-leading companies, such as Neuracle Science, with which we have recently concluded a cooperative investment agreement, and FINZELBERG, a natural medicine company in German. As such, we are continuously investing to secure core platform technologies related to production and research.”