Arontier·The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Joint New Drug Research Agreement Signed

- Completed Joint Research Agreement for New Drug Development Targeting Tumor Microenvironment Using AI Drug Repositioning Platform (Remedy)

AaronTier, an AI-based new drug development venture company (CEO: Junsu Ko), and The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University (research director: Professor Ping Lu), a hospital affiliated with a Chinese medical university, signed a joint research and development agreement on the 7th on the theme of ‘Development of tumor microenvironment drugs using AI drug repositioning platform (Remedy).’

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, founded in 1896 by Dr. William McCiure, is a leading hospital in the northern Henan Province region (population of 20 million). Currently, it has 3,500 beds and about 500 patients participate in clinical trials annually. The hospital actively participates in international multicenter clinical trials with many large pharmaceutical companies (such as Hansoh Pharmaceutical 600276 and Hengrui Medicine). In the future, AaronTier plans to collaborate with this hospital for clinical trials of new drugs developed by the company.

Additionally, through this agreement, Remedy will be used to identify new drug candidates targeting the tumor microenvironment, and Professor Ping Lu will verify their effectiveness on the tumor microenvironment through experiments, aiming to derive candidate substances by 2021.

Most anticancer drugs target tumors, but it has been revealed that conquering cancer is impossible with tumor-targeting anticancer drugs alone. The tumor microenvironment around the tumor must also be regulated to increase cancer treatment rates and significantly reduce mortality. Therefore, interest in developing drugs targeting the tumor microenvironment has recently increased greatly.

Tumors consist not only of cancer cells but also various surrounding cells such as stromal cells, fibroblasts, immune and inflammatory mediator cells, vascular endothelial cells, and connective tissue-forming cells, all of which are exposed to hypoxic and acidic conditions. This special tumor microenvironment regulates cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis, affecting both the carcinogenesis process and drug resistance to anticancer treatments. An accurate understanding of the interactions between cancer cells and their surrounding environment is essential for discovering new cancer treatment targets and developing therapies.

REMEDY, owned by AaronTier participating in this joint research, uses gene expression responses induced by drugs to identify the most effective drug candidates from 230 million compounds through artificial intelligence.

AaronTier possesses an AI-based new drug design platform (AD3) and a drug repositioning platform (Remedy), developing and advancing proprietary AI technologies. The AD3 platform, recognized for its potential to accelerate new drug development, has been actively developed since June 2019 as part of an AI new drug development platform project supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (government funding of 4.5 billion KRW).