REYON Pharmaceutical (co-CEOs Jeong Soon-ok and Yoo Yong-hwan) announced on May 10 that it had signed a licensing agreement with iNtRON Biotechnology (CEO Yoon Kyung-won) on iN-EYD, a new drug candidate, to secure an antifungal drug pipeline. 

Based on the agreement, REYON Pharmaceutical will commence full-fledged development after receiving the polyketide-based antifungal drug candidate, iN-EYD, and related patent rights and know-how from iNtRON Biotechnology. 

REYON is already capable of manufacturing the same class of immunosuppressant products, and it is expected to develop a mass production process and begin production of a new antifungal drug under GMP requirements by applying its fermentation technology and know-how. The company is also considering licensing technology to a major pharmaceutical company in the world after completing the Phase 1 clinical trial. 

Antifungal medicinal products are used to treat fungal infections. Fungal infections commonly occur as opportunistic infections in immunocompromised people, and the market is undergoing rapid growth due to rise of organ transplantations and the elderly population. According to Zion Market Research Report, the global antifungal drug market size has been forecast to reach USD 16.8 billion (approx. KRW 18.7 trillion) in 2026. It is also garnering attention from the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer, for example, has recently acquired Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, which develops antifungal drugs.

However, existing antifungal drugs are associated with serious side effects such as kidney toxicity and liver toxicity, which is one of the reasons new antifungal drugs have not been developed for decades.

iN-EYD that has been licensed to REYON Pharm by iNtRON Bio is a new class of antifungal drugs developed in collaboration with Duke University in the United States and Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University in Korea based on combinatorial biology. It is a first-in-class drug that can address the issues of toxicity and resistance, which were considered problematic with respect to existing antifungal drugs. Applications for related patents have been filed in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and so on.

It has a new mechanism of action that is different from those of comparable drugs currently on the market, so it can be used to treat infections from fungi that are resistant to existing drugs. Plus, it can be used concomitantly with the existing drugs, which makes it even more marketable. 

 “It brings me great pleasure to have secured an excellent new drug candidate in the promising field of antifungal agents. We will incorporate our specialized fermentation technology and production capacity and do our best to develop and commercialize a new drug for the global market at our Chungju plant,” said Yoo Yong-hwan, CEO of REYON Pharmaceutical, before adding, “We will continue to collaborate with iNtRON Bio in various promising fields based on our expertise in the future.” 

iNtRON Biotechnology CEO Yoon Kyung-won said, “At iNtRO Bio, we have set the itLysin platform technology, phageome technology, and phagerus technology as the key areas of our R&D efforts, with plans to concentrate on them. Accordingly, our promising pipelines are being developed in collaboration with competent specialized companies to which the related technologies have been transferred. From our point of view, having a specialized company participate in the development process will speed things up, while REYON Pharm will gain a new growth engine, so this is expected to have positive impacts for both companies.”