JW Group Expands 'Open Innovation' Territory with US VC Arch Venture Partners through Business Agreement

Overseas Biotech Discovery Collaboration

Chanhee Park, CTO of JW Group (left), Keith L. Crandell, Co-founder of Arch Venture Partners.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] JW Group announced on the 13th that it has signed a business agreement with the U.S. venture capital (VC) firm ARCH Venture Partners to strengthen the promotion of open innovation strategies with global bio companies.

Under the agreement, JW Group will receive the ATS (ARCH Technical Service) program from ARCH Venture Partners. ATS is a program that provides promising biotech companies and technology information selected by ARCH Venture Partners to strategic investors interested in business cooperation with venture companies worldwide.

ARCH Venture Partners is the largest U.S. venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies with innovative technologies in the healthcare sector. This is the first time a domestic pharmaceutical company has partnered with a U.S. bio-healthcare specialized VC for open innovation in the basic research (discovery stage) field.

JW Group plans to expand its open innovation partners to global bio companies by utilizing the ATS program. Until now, overseas open innovation targets have been centered on hospitals, medical schools, and research institutions. Considering the R&D areas of each company such as JW Pharmaceutical, C&C New Drug Research Institute, JW Life Science, JW Bioscience, and JW Creagen, JW Group plans to seek joint research partners in ▲small molecule synthetic drugs ▲biopharmaceuticals ▲new modalities (therapeutic approaches) ▲data science (big data, machine learning, etc.) ▲medical and diagnostic devices ▲nutrition-related fields.

Park Chan-hee, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of JW Group, said, “JW aims to establish a sustainable cooperation model that creates synergy by combining its own platform and to achieve R&D outcomes,” adding, “We will discover leading overseas biotechs through cooperation with ARCH Venture Partners and achieve successful open innovation results.”