AptamerScience Expects Aptamer-Based COVID-19 Therapeutics... Diagnostic Kit Combining Antigen and Molecular Advantages

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Aptamer Science, newly listed on the KOSDAQ market, is showing a slight increase compared to the public offering price on its first day of listing.

At 9:40 a.m. on the 16th, Aptamer Science was trading at 30,700 KRW, up 6.41% from the opening price.

The opening price was set at 28,850 KRW, 15.4% higher than the public offering price of 25,000 KRW.

Founded in 2011 as a spin-off from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Aptamer Science is a company developing new drugs and diagnostic products based on aptamer (single-stranded DNA target molecule) technology. It is the only company in Korea to have successfully discovered aptamers and commercialized products. It developed the world's first aptamer-based early lung cancer diagnostic kit, improving the reliability of test results compared to existing diagnostic kits.

Aptamers are smaller in molecular size than antibodies, allowing higher permeability, and have more than 10 times stronger binding affinity to target proteins. They also pose a lower risk of immune rejection or side effects in the body compared to antibodies.

Aptamer Science plans to commercialize follow-up diagnostic pipelines for pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, and others, while also advancing innovative new drug development projects in diabetes, liver cancer, and brain tumor fields.

The company is also conducting research and development related to COVID-19 diagnostic kits. Recently, through Viro Select, Aptamer Science discovered a highly specific protein aptamer that reacts to the COVID-19 virus spike. They plan to develop a rapid COVID-19 diagnostic kit by applying the aptoPOC technology to the aptamer.

The rapid diagnostic kit is expected to determine virus infection status within 15 minutes with high sensitivity and specificity. It enables quick diagnosis with a short test time like antigen diagnostic kits, while possessing the high accuracy of molecular diagnostic kits. Using aptamer pairs, it can diagnose virus infection by color change alone, similar to pregnancy test kits, and can also detect variants.

Han Dong-il, CEO of Aptamer Science, hinted in an interview with an economic media outlet that aptamers could be used not only for rapid diagnostic kits but also as therapeutics. He expects that if aptamers bind to the COVID-19 virus envelope protein, they could prevent the virus from infecting healthy cells, making them effective for treatment as well.