Korea-based MDimune Inc. is ready to go public next year upon confidence in its innovative therapy platform called BioDrone leveraging on cell-derived vesicles like exosomes obtained from various human cells to achieve highly target-specific drug delivery, a concept similar to Amazon’s precise drone-based door-to-door delivery in the extracorporeal world.

The startup founded in 2015 aims to load various drugs onto BioDrone in cooperation with domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and other incurable conditions, the company’s president Bae Shin-gyu told Maeil Business Newspaper in a recent interview.

In May, MDimune signed a license agreement with Reyon Pharmaceutical over the BioDrone technology and agreed to jointly develop virus vaccines and treatments for rare genetic diseases. An additional license deals with another Korean pharmaceutical company is forthcoming. The recent business achievements will pave the way for the company’s IPO plan in the second half of next year, Bae said.

Exosomes are microscopic nanoparticle-sized substances secreted by cells. Exosomes began to attract attention after their potential became known with their role as `information carriers` for intercellular information exchange.

If a cancer therapy is loaded onto the exosome and put into the body, the exosome transports the drug to the area where the treatment is needed to cure the disease.

In the early days of MDimune, there were only 10 exosome-related companies in the world, but the number has sharply increased to about 20 in Korea and more than 200 around the world.

Bae received a master’s degree in fermentation engineering from KAIST and worked as a senior researcher and a technology evaluator. Bae decided to start his own business after discovering the potential of exosomes as new therapy technology for precision medicine while watching his mother struggling with chemotherapy.

MDimune has secured a proprietary technology to mass-produce exosomes in cells using extrusion technology through Postech. The company has registered patents for this technology in five countries, including Korea and the United States.

By Lee Se-bom and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]