BL PharmTech Acquires Bio Venture 'Melanis' to Expand New Drug Development Business Area

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Health functional food specialist BLPharmtech announced on the 20th that it has acquired a 34.9% stake in Melanis, a new drug development bio-venture.

The structure involves acquiring existing shares for 2.34 billion KRW and obtaining new shares worth 6 billion KRW. In March, BLPharmtech changed its name from its previous name ‘NextBT’ to ‘BLPharmtech,’ meaning ‘Better Life.’ This signifies the company’s commitment to contributing to life improvement by providing better treatment opportunities to patients suffering from intractable diseases through new drug development.

BLPharmtech is expanding its business scope from health functional foods to new drug development by acquiring Melanis. Melanis, acquired by BLPharmtech, is a video biomarker development bio-venture co-founded in 2016 by Professor Taewan Kim, a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Jinkyu Lee, a former Seoul National University chemistry professor who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from MIT.

Using a new concept organic compound called artificial melanin, Melanis is developing a new contrast agent drug targeting chronic disease groups (liver disease, periodontitis) where accurate early diagnosis and patient prognosis monitoring are crucial. Among its pipeline, ‘ML-101’ is a non-invasive imaging biomarker (MRI contrast agent) for chronic liver disease that can precisely image the progression and improvement of liver fibrosis.

Among existing imaging diagnostic methods, ultrasound, which is most widely used, makes it difficult to quantitatively confirm lesions, and biopsy, an invasive method, carries a high risk of side effects due to its invasiveness. The company expects that ‘ML-101’ being developed by Melanis will be a solution that can meet these unmet medical needs.

ML-101 has competitiveness in quantitatively imaging chronic liver diseases such as liver fibrosis more precisely than existing gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents, which are heavy metal substances and cannot perform such detailed imaging.

Melanis is also jointly developing compounds for early imaging diagnosis of periodontal disease with IOBio, a domestic dental diagnostics company. Using new concept organic compounds, it enables quantitative imaging analysis from the early stages of chronic periodontitis, allowing monitoring of lesion progression and treatment effects. Melanis also plans to develop therapeutic new drugs related to chronic diseases. Recognizing its growth potential, it has attracted about 15 billion KRW in investment from leading domestic VCs and Dongkook Life Science, a subsidiary of Dongkook Pharmaceutical, the top contrast agent company in Korea.

Chairman Taewan Kim, who leads Melanis’ research and development, has participated in numerous new drug development projects related to chronic diseases in the United States. Besides Professor Taewan Kim, Melanis’ R&D team includes Professor Haesin Lee from KAIST and Dr. Taeyoung Oh, former director of clinical development at Dong-A ST.

Lee Cheonsu, CEO of BL Group, said, “By becoming the largest shareholder of the bio-venture Melanis, BLPharmtech has secured the new drug pipeline currently under development,” adding, “We will reinvest the profits generated from the existing health food business into innovative new drug development to provide better treatment opportunities to patients.”