Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced on the 11th that it has signed a joint research agreement with Swedish corporation Salipro Biotech to develop next-generation new drugs.
Under this agreement, Salipro will provide Daewoong Pharmaceutical with its proprietary membrane protein stabilization technology known as the "Salipro® platform." Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to use this technology to enhance drug targets involving membrane proteins and accelerate the development of next-generation new drugs.
Many drug candidates currently under development focus mainly on "membrane proteins," which are located in the thin cell membranes that encase cells. Membrane proteins are crucial in new drug development, accounting for more than 60% of marketed drugs, but they are inherently unstable in laboratory settings, making research challenging. The Salipro platform helps stabilize these membrane proteins in conditions similar to those inside a cell, thereby making the research and development of new drug candidates significantly more efficient.
Salipro is a corporation with extensive collaboration experience with global pharmaceutical companies such as Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, France's Sanofi, and Japan's Sumitomo. Daewoong Pharmaceutical is the first collaboration with a Korean corporation. With this agreement, Daewoong Pharmaceutical expects to accelerate its membrane protein drug development and potentially engage in global technology exports in the future.
Jens Frauenfeld, CEO of Salipro Biotech, noted, "Collaboration with Daewoong Pharmaceutical is highly significant as it marks Salipro's first partnership with a Korean corporation." He added, "The Salipro platform is expected to open new possibilities for global innovative drug development by enabling the study of target proteins that were previously difficult to access."
Park Seong-soo, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, expressed, "We expect that the Salipro platform will enhance accessibility to complex membrane protein targets and accelerate our new drug discovery efforts," adding, "We will develop new drugs with global competitiveness through an open collaboration strategy."