mRNA-based vaccine and therapeutic developer SML Biopharm (CEO Nam Jae-hwan) announced on the 4th that it has been selected for the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “2024 3rd Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment Technology Development Project.”
This program, aimed at realizing a “Healthcare 4.0 era in which all citizens are healthy,” supports technology development to tackle unmet infectious disease therapies. SML Biopharm will receive KRW 2.05 billion in R&D funding over three years to develop an mRNA-based antibody therapeutic for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), and will accelerate therapeutic development by conducting preclinical studies.
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome is an infectious disease caused by infection with the SFTS virus transmitted by Haemaphysalis longicornis (the Asian longhorned tick), and it has a high fatality rate of approximately 18.7%. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments. Cases have been reported this year across Korea, including Gangwon, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, and Jeju, and many SFTS patients have also been reported in Asian countries such as Japan, China, and Thailand. In particular, a human-to-human transmission case was confirmed in Japan in May, further highlighting the urgent need for rapid therapeutic development.
SML Biopharm began focused SFTS therapeutic research in 2023 through a project commissioned by the National Institute of Health of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency to develop SFTS treatment candidates. In early studies the company confirmed the in vivo efficacy of an mRNA-based SFTS therapeutic candidate and secured rights to use the sequences of potent SFTS virus-neutralizing antibodies derived from infected patients, strengthening its therapeutic development capabilities. With support from this Ministry of Health and Welfare project, the company will enter the preclinical stage and plans to collaborate with research teams from The Catholic University of Korea, Chungbuk National University, and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB).
Using mRNA technology, SML Biopharm is developing not only infectious disease preventive vaccines and cancer vaccines but also therapeutic technologies and candidates that directly express proteins and antibodies in vivo. Through this project, the company aims to demonstrate rapid therapeutic development technology that can respond to SFTS and other emerging infectious diseases, and expects to expand into developing treatments for novel and variant infectious diseases and other areas with high unmet medical needs.
The project’s principal investigator, SML Biopharm Head of Research and Chief Operating Officer Kim Dae-geun, said, “We will do our utmost to rapidly develop innovative therapeutics that can bring new hope to patients.”
Source: Korea Data Economy
http://www.dataeconomy.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=28487
