Biotech corporations Ingenia Therapeutics cleared the preliminary review for a KOSDAQ listing, kicking off its initial public offering process. The ophthalmic disease therapy the company is co-developing with global big pharma Merck (MSD) in the United States has entered global phase 3 trials.
Ingenia Therapeutics said on the 22nd it received preliminary KOSDAQ listing approval from the Korea Exchange (KRX). Founded in 2018 in Boston, Ingenia is an antibody drug development corporations based on microvascular protection and restoration technology.
Founder Han Sang-yeol, the chief executive, is an antibody research and development expert who worked at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Harvard Medical School, and U.S. biotech corporations. The company has brought on many researchers from global pharmaceutical companies.
Ingenia's core technology is a platform that directly activates TIE2, a protein that regulates vascular stability. Based on this, the company built the "TIE-body" and "LCIDEC" platforms. While existing therapies focused on adjusting the balance of vascular-related ligands (Ang1 and Ang2), Ingenia's technology directly activates the TIE2 receptor to stabilize vascular endothelial cells. The company said this can broaden the treatment range for chronic vascular inflammation and microvascular injury diseases.
Flagship pipeline IGT-427 is currently being developed globally by MSD under the name MK-8748. In 2022, Ingenia signed a technology transfer and joint research agreement with ophthalmology-focused biotech corporations EyeBio, and EyeBio became a subsidiary of MSD last year.
MSD recently began global phase 3 trials of "MK-8748" in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, a cause of blindness in older adults. It is also preparing a phase 3 trial as a treatment for "diabetic macular edema," which reduces vision as a diabetes complication. The company said it expects longer duration of action and better treatment effects than widely used anti-VEGF therapies.
The kidney disease therapy IGT-303 under in-house development is also in global phase 1/2a trials, the company said. The candidate works by restoring damaged renal blood vessels and tissue to slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and diabetic kidney disease. The company said it plans to enter phase 2a within the first half of this year.
Beyond ophthalmology and kidney disease, the company is also pushing to expand indications to oncology, central nervous system, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases.
Han Sang-yeol, the head of Ingenia, said, "As MSD's global phase 3 trial of 'MK-8748' proceeds in parallel with the entry of in-house 'IGT-303' into phase 2a, the company is reaching a key inflection point," adding, "We will concentrate the funds secured through a KOSDAQ listing on advancing our platform technology and developing follow-on pipelines to deliver global new drug results based on Korea's original technology."