REYON Pharmaceutical (co-CEOs Jeong Soon-ok and Yoo Yong-hwan) announced on May 4 that it had entered into a licensing agreement and a joint research and development (R&D) agreement on BioDrone®, a drug delivery platform technology. with MDimune for the purpose of developing mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutic agents. 

 
(From the left: MDimune CEO Bae Shin-gyu and REYON CEO Yoo Yong-hwan)

REYON Pharmaceutical signed a licensing agreement on the patent and know-how related to the BioDrone technology based on cell-derived vesicles (CDVs) produced through an extrusion process developed by MDimune and thus secured a global non-exclusive license to use the technology in developing and commercializing antiviral vaccines and therapeutic agents for rare genetic diseases. MDimune has patented its extrusion technology in five countries, including Korea and the United States, and holds exclusive rights to the technology. 

REYON Pharmaceutical plans to conduct non-clinical and clinical research on mRNA-based antiviral vaccines and treatments for rare genetic disease by applying mRNA encapsulation technology to MDimune’s BioDrone drug delivery technology using CDVs. The outcomes of the research may potentially be commercialized in-house or be licensed to a third party.

MDimune has been expanding its territory in the field of new drug development by developing anticancer drugs and therapeutics for intractable diseases using the BioDrone platform, a next-generation CDV-based drug delivery technology. It has gained global recognition for its technological prowess, as evident in its partnerships with Lonza (Switzerland), EVERCYTE (Austria), ExonanoRNA (USA), and Navigo (Germany).

MDimune’s BioDrone platform is a technology for producing CDVs, which do not have the same limitations as exosomes, and developing them as therapeutics for various refractory diseases. It is a next-generation drug technology that can minimize cytotoxicity and enable selective delivery of the desired drugs to specific tissues with lesions. 

CDVs, which are the key component of the BioDrone platform, can be mass-produced quickly using a proprietary extrusion method. Plus, they are more homogenous than exosomes and can be produced from various types of cells as the raw material. 

The drug delivery technology is being further developed by combining it with a wide range of drug encapsulation technologies and targeting technologies for the purpose of gene therapy, and it can be applied to various diseases.

Based on the recent agreement, REYON Pharmaceutical plans to first explore the possibility of developing an antiviral vaccine and rare genetic disease treatment for two diseases and expand the scope of joint R&D to include various other diseases by signing additional agreements in the future.

Yoo Yong-hwan, co-CEO of REYON Pharmaceutical, said, “If we successfully apply the mRNA encapsulation technology based on the BioDrone technology, an excellent platform technology of MDimune, we will be able to develop innovative antiviral vaccines and treatments for rare genetic diseases. […] Not only that, we will continue our efforts to commercialize next-generation platform technology and new drugs by working closely with MDimune.” 

MDimune CEO Bae Shin-gyu said, “MDimune has recently been entering into research agreements with domestic and foreign bio companies and universities to further develop the BioDrone® platform. […] We expect to be able to take one step closer to the commercialization of the BioDrone platform through the joint R&D with REYON Pharmaceutical.”