The Seoul city government said on the 9th it will work with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to support research and development (R&D) and global market entry for two domestic bio startups.
The city held an awards ceremony for corporations selected for the "Korea AstraZeneca–Seoul Bio Hub Global Open Innovation" program at Seoul Bio Hub in Dongdaemun District on the same day. This program is the first execution result of the business agreement signed in Oct. last year to establish the "Seoul–AstraZeneca Joint Incubation Center."
After the call for applications in Nov. last year, 33 domestic bio and medical startups applied, and two startups were finally selected through evaluations by Korea AstraZeneca and experts, comprehensively reviewing technological competitiveness, potential for global collaboration, and potential for joint research and technology transfer.
Avatar Therapeutics, a selected corporation, has an adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery technology platform that precisely delivers gene therapies to target tissues by using artificial intelligence (AI)-based biological data analysis.
Curogen is developing treatments for autoimmune diseases based on small-molecule compounds and fusion proteins, and presented a differentiated mechanism of action in the field of immunology, a key therapeutic area for AstraZeneca.
The two corporations will receive R&D mentoring with AstraZeneca's global researchers, an opportunity to move into AstraZeneca's BioVentureHub in Gothenburg, Sweden, support for tenancy at Seoul Bio Hub and rent subsidies, and 35 million won in research support per corporation.
The Seoul city government is continually expanding open innovation with global pharmaceutical companies centered on Seoul Bio Hub. Since its opening in 2017, Seoul Bio Hub has supported 360 corporations, has attracted more than 600 billion won in cumulative investment, and recorded annual sales in the 100 billion won range.
Lee Su-yeon, head of the Seoul city government's Economic Affairs Office, said, "We will expand the collaboration platform so that promising domestic corporations can connect with big pharma's R&D resources, validate their technologies, and leap into the global market."