Cancerorp, Hanmi Science CEO Receives 20 Billion KRW Capital Increase... "Close Collaboration with Oxford BackMedics"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Cancerop, a precision medicine and molecular diagnostics specialist company, has announced a jump start to the COVID-19 mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) global vaccine hub in collaboration with Hanmi Science, following a 20 billion KRW investment.

On the 30th, Cancerop announced that it decided on a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase worth approximately 20 billion KRW targeting Jongyun Lim, CEO of Hanmi Science and Chairman of the Korea Bio Association. The newly issued shares include 5,614,823 common shares, and 277,778 common shares of Hanmi Science will be contributed in kind.

Once the capital contribution is completed, the largest shareholder of Cancerop will change to Jongyun Lim, CEO of Hanmi Science, and the current management system will be maintained after the change of the largest shareholder to ensure stable business operations. The existing largest shareholders and CEOs are Wangjun Lee, Chairman of Myongji Hospital, and Dosoon Hwang, co-CEOs.

A representative of Cancerop said, “We made this investment to cooperate with Oxford Vacmedix, a UK Oxford University spin-off company, and the Oxford University venture spin-off company, leveraging Cancerop’s pioneering molecular and genomic analysis capabilities and immune cell technology research experience. As a company that has secured the world’s first technology for cancer vaccines, we expect to play an important bridgehead role in future clinical trials related to mRNA vaccines.”

Oxford Vacmedix is a UK Oxford University spin-off company developing anticancer immunovaccines and cancer diagnostic methods, developing four cancer vaccine pipelines based on patented Recombinant Overlapping Peptides technology. The CEO of Oxford Vacmedix is a former AstraZeneca executive, and Cancerop holds the largest shareholder position with a 43% stake.

The Hanmi Group has already secured total infrastructure related to large-scale nucleic acid raw material production capacity and finished bio new drug development and production. To participate as a WHO (World Health Organization) Asia-Pacific mRNA vaccine hub company, since May, it has formed a consortium with Myongji Hospital, GeneOne Life Science, Innobio, GS Neotek, and others. The goal is to establish itself as a leading representative of mRNA technology at the forefront of the global vaccine hub strategy.