On March 24, 2021 The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology reported on the 24th that it had transferred technology to the biotech Ingenium Therapeutics for the differentiation and mass proliferation of highly active NK cells (natural killer cells) from hematopoietic stem cells and the treatment of leukemia and lung cancer using the same (Press release, Ingenium Therapeutics, MAR 24, 2021, View Source [SID1234643518]).
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Ingenium Therapeutics (CEO: Jin-ok Ko) is a biotech company established in 2020 to develop immune cell therapy technology.
Through this technology transfer (exclusive license) contract, Korea Life Insurance receives a total of KRW 9.5 billion in fixed technology fees from Ingeniom and an additional technology fee of KRW 145 billion based on future sales performance. After technology transfer, we plan to conduct joint research with the goal of obtaining commercial clinical trial approval within this year.
NK cells are immune cells that make up approximately 10% of human blood immune cells. It has cancer cell killing ability (cytotoxicity) that kills cancer cells at the forefront without any other stimulation. The Korea Life Research Institute explained that the NK cell-based anti-cancer immune cell therapy technology transferred this time is expected to cause fewer side effects compared to T cell-based immune cell therapy because it does not proliferate on its own after injection into the human body but attacks cancer cells and gradually disappears. .
Dr. Inpyo Choi’s team at the Life Research Center’s Immunotherapy Research Center developed a technology to separate and differentiate NK cells from hematopoietic stem cells and to mass proliferate highly active NK cells. The explanation is that the efficacy and safety of NK cells were confirmed in non-clinical tests.
Afterwards, in a clinical trial conducted jointly by Dr. Choi’s team and Professor Lee Kyu-hyung’s team at Asan Medical Center, NK cells were administered to 41 patients with incurable leukemia, and the results showed that cancer progression was suppressed and survival rate was increased, and several papers were published. According to the researcher’s clinical results published in Blood Marrow Transplant in 2014 as a representative paper, administering NK cells to patients with incurable leukemia slowed the progression of the disease and increased the survival rate compared to the non-administered group (doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.01.031).
Director Kim Jang-seong of the Korea Life Research Institute said, "The Korea Life Research Institute is currently actively conducting research on CAR-NK cell therapy and iNK (induced NK) cell therapy using dedifferentiation technology, creating continuous research results in the field of gene cell therapy." "Based on this, we expect to contribute to the development of safe and highly effective anti-cancer immunotherapy agents for the future aging era."
Meanwhile, the technology is being developed through the Immunotherapy (Customized i-Medicine, CiM) convergence research group project of the National Science and Technology Research Council (NST) under the Ministry of Science and ICT, the national research and development project of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the unique project of the Life Research Institute. This is a research achievement achieved through long-term, stable support.