[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] IGEN is showing strong performance. Amid fierce competition in messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine development, news that IGEN is collaborating with Cellumed to develop mRNA production enzymes appears to be influencing the stock price.
As of 2:31 PM on the 25th, IGEN is trading at 38,400 KRW, up 20.57% from the previous day. Cellumed's stock price has surged to the upper limit.
Cellumed announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IGEN for joint research and commercialization of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine.
Through the MOU, Cellumed and IGEN plan to comprehensively collaborate on the development of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, including the development of five types of ‘mRNA production enzymes.’
In the enzyme development collaboration, Cellumed will produce high-quality ‘mRNA production enzymes,’ and IGEN will be responsible for quality evaluation. Once the enzymes are developed, Cellumed and IGEN will jointly promote commercialization, including the development of mass production processes and the establishment of KGMP facilities for the five types of ‘mRNA production enzymes.’ In addition to enzyme development, they plan to strengthen cooperation on developing mRNA vaccines that can replace existing vaccine formulations using mRNA-based technology owned by IGEN.
Cellumed and IGEN expect that pursuing vaccine raw materials and components business through collaboration will nationally reduce dependence on overseas sources in mRNA technology development and provide an opportunity to strengthen industrial competitiveness. Recently, as global competition in mRNA vaccine development intensifies, securing vaccine raw materials and components such as nucleic acid substances constituting pharmaceutical-grade mRNA, lipids constituting delivery vehicles, and mRNA production enzymes has become difficult due to shortages.
Significant synergy is also expected through collaboration with IGEN. IGEN recently confirmed immune induction ability and preventive effects against variant viruses from the UK and South Africa in animal tests of its COVID-19 vaccine (EG-COVID) employing mRNA platform technology. It is accelerating the final stages of vaccine development for clinical trials. IGEN plans to submit an IND (investigational new drug application) for phase 1/2a clinical trials of EG-COVID to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in June.
The vaccine delivery vehicle of EG-COVID developed by IGEN uses ‘cationic liposomes’ instead of Pfizer and Moderna’s ‘LNP (lipid nanoparticles).’ The biggest advantage of cationic liposomes is that they can be freeze-dried, allowing refrigerated storage instead of ultra-low temperature freezing required by Pfizer or Moderna. Additionally, since they do not contain PEG (polyethylene glycol), a synthetic surfactant that is a key component of LNPs and a major cause of anaphylaxis, the likelihood of adverse reactions is lower.
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