LG is strengthening its strategic moves in the bio industry by investing in a U.S. cancer treatment developer.
According to industry sources on the 3rd, LG recently participated in the Series B funding of the U.S. bio venture "Strand Therapeutics." This investment was made through LG Technology Ventures, LG's venture capital affiliate.
LG Technology Ventures is a venture capital firm under the LG Group established in Silicon Valley, U.S., in 2018. To date, it has invested more than $410 million in over 90 corporations and funds, including artificial intelligence (AI), bio, battery, mobility, and new materials.
Strand Therapeutics is an mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid)-based therapeutic development company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2017 by graduates from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) specializing in bioengineering. The company is developing treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and rare diseases, based on technology that programs cells in the body to produce specific antigens in precise amounts.
With this investment, the cumulative investment amount of LG Technology Ventures in the bio sector is believed to have surpassed $50 million. The cumulative investment scale, which was $35 million at the end of last year, has increased by more than 40% in about seven months this year.
LG is positioning industries known as "ABC industries" – AI, bio, and cleantech – as next-generation growth engines. Especially in the bio sector, investment activities are accelerating, focusing on collaborations with therapeutic development startups. In February this year, it conducted a follow-up investment in the U.S.-based rare obesity treatment developer "Adipax Therapeutics," a company that develops treatments for metabolic diseases through appetite suppression.
Currently, clinical trials for major candidate substances are ongoing, and the approval status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to be determined by 2027 based on the clinical results.
LG has also invested in healthcare data analysis platform "Etian," "Echo Health," which develops early diagnosis solutions for heart and lung diseases using digital stethoscopes, and "Aselex," a cell therapy developer.
AI-based bio research and development (R&D) are also gaining momentum. Last month, LG AI Research unveiled a model called "Exaone Pass 2.0," which can diagnose cancer in one minute by precisely analyzing genetic mutations, expressions, and subtle changes in tissues. This has shortened the analysis speed of genetic testing, which previously took more than two weeks.
LG AI Research is collaboratively developing a multimodal-based medical AI platform with Professor Hwang Tae-hyun's team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the U.S.
It is also expanding collaborations with bio corporations and research institutions around the world. It is jointly developing new drugs for Alzheimer's with the nonprofit genomic research institution "Jackson Lab" and has started developing AI for next-generation protein structure prediction with professor Baek Min-kyung's research team at Seoul National University.
Gu Gwang-mo, CEO of LG Group, stated in his New Year's address this year, "We challenge innovative new drugs to open a future where we can be with our loved ones for a longer time," presenting AI and bio technology as the core drivers changing customers' lives.