Chaperon Receives Approval for Preliminary Listing Review for IPO

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Shaperon, a bio company developing immune new drugs, announced on the 27th that it has received approval for preliminary review for listing on the KOSDAQ market from the Korea Exchange.

Shaperon is pursuing a KOSDAQ listing through a technology special case. The company plans to submit a securities registration statement within this year and actively proceed with the listing. The lead underwriter is NH Investment & Securities.

Since its establishment in 2008, Shaperon has continued new drug development based on two pillars: synthetic drugs inhibiting the inflammasome targeting GPCR19 and nanobody antibody therapeutics that can overcome the shortcomings of existing antibody treatments. Shaperon's inflammasome inhibitor acts on both the initiation and amplification processes of inflammation through the GPCR19-P2X7-NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway, demonstrating broad anti-inflammatory effects and high safety due to the characteristic of GPCR19 being mainly expressed only in immune cells. Based on this, Shaperon is developing the COVID-19 treatment 'Nusepin', the atopic dermatitis treatment 'Nugel', and the Alzheimer's dementia treatment 'Nuserin'. Additionally, by reducing the size of existing antibody therapeutics to one-tenth, it facilitates the development of various formulations and applies nanobody-based next-generation antibody therapeutics, which overcome the disadvantages of existing antibody treatments with high stability, to immune-oncology drug development.

Based on this, Shaperon completed a technology transfer contract for a dementia treatment drug with Kukjeon Pharmaceuticals in March last year, and last month signed a technology transfer contract for an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment drug with Bridge Biotherapeutics.

Shaperon plans to use the funds secured through the listing as operating capital for ongoing global clinical trials, research and development (R&D) of its own pipeline, and global market business development, laying the foundation for sustainable growth.

Seungyong Sung and Myungse Lee, co-CEOs of Shaperon, said, "Through the KOSDAQ listing, we will further enhance corporate value and credibility, and do our best to continuously grow as a leading company in the field of inflammatory disease therapeutics."