KainosMed Establishes Biopharmaceutical Division... Recruits Professor Kim Eun-hee, Original Developer of KM819 Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] New drug development company KainosMed is expanding its business area to bio-new drug development.

KainosMed recently established a Bio-Pharmaceutical Division and announced on the 15th that it has recruited Professor Eunhee Kim of Chungnam National University, who developed the core technology of the Parkinson's disease treatment drug (KM819), as Vice President and Head of the Bio-Pharmaceutical Division at KainosMed.

Vice President Kim conducted research showing that inhibiting FAF1 (Fas-associated factor 1), the target substance of the Parkinson's treatment drug (KM819) developed by KainosMed, suppresses and delays disease progression. He is also the researcher who registered the human FAF1 gene in the Gene Bank. He majored in microbiology at Seoul National University and earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Tufts University in the United States. He has continuously conducted FAF1-related research and is an authority in FAF1 target research, having published numerous related papers and patents.

Vice President Kim plans to explore the potential expansion of FAF1 function utilization to diseases other than degenerative brain diseases and to develop bio-new drugs based on other mechanisms of action. KainosMed's strategy is to secure pipelines in the bio-new drug sector and additionally secure growth drivers for the company through this.

Vice President Kim said, “I am pleased to join KainosMed, which has the capability to take risks and develop ‘first-in-class’ drug candidates at the discovery stage through technology transfer into global clinical research phases,” adding, “I will devote myself to developing leading therapies rather than follower-type treatments by leveraging my years of experience in new drug development research.”

KainosMed also recruited Professor Kyungok Cho, an emeritus professor of life sciences at KAIST, as a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) member. Professor Cho, who specializes in molecular genetics, has recently focused on exosome research.

KM819 is a disease-modifying therapeutic that inhibits FAF1, a protein that promotes cell death, thereby ▲ preventing neuronal cell death and ▲ promoting the degradation of a protein called alpha-synuclein through activation of autophagy function, which inhibits aggregation and blocks the progression of Parkinson's disease.

KainosMed plans to enter Phase 2 clinical trials in the United States for KM819 this year for Parkinson's treatment development and plans to expand indications to multiple system atrophy (MSA) and conduct additional Phase 2 clinical trials in Korea.