Orion Holdings Signs Joint Investment Agreement with Hisense Bio for Development of Treatment for Intractable Dental Diseases

Orion Holdings and Hisense Bio Establish Joint Venture with 60% and 40% Equity Stakes

(From the left) Heo In-cheol, CEO of Orion Holdings, and Park Joo-chul, CEO of Hisense Bio, are taking a commemorative photo after signing a joint investment agreement.

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Orion Holdings announced on the 29th that it has signed a joint investment agreement with Hisense Bio, a company developing treatments for intractable dental diseases.

Orion Holdings and Hisense Bio will establish a joint venture company, tentatively named "Orion Biologics," next month with equity stakes of 60% and 40%, respectively, to promote the dental disease treatment business. Depending on the progress of the business, they plan to invest up to 16.5 billion KRW in capital.

Through the joint venture, Orion Holdings will introduce Hisense Bio’s specialized treatment technology for dental diseases such as sensitive teeth, cavities, and periodontal disease, and will promote product development and clinical approval for commercialization in Asian markets including China. In the future, they plan to expand into not only quasi-drugs such as oral cleansers and toothpaste but also food ingredient sectors.

Hisense Bio succeeded in developing the world’s first "CPNE7 (Copine7) protein-derived peptide," which is the foundational technology for dentin and periodontal tissue regeneration, in 2017, and has completed patent registration in 11 countries including Korea, China, and the United States. Utilizing this, they are pushing for commercialization of a treatment for sensitive teeth and have secured safety in a domestic Phase 1 clinical trial and are currently conducting a Phase 2a trial. Since the peptide is one of the body’s constituent substances, it is harmless to the human body, allowing for a shorter clinical period compared to other new drugs, which is expected to enable early commercialization. A technology evaluation is also planned for 2023.

Sensitivity symptoms occur when the dentin of the tooth is damaged, transmitting external stimuli to the dental nerve and causing pain. Currently, only physical methods such as applying dental materials like resin are used. In contrast, the technology owned by Hisense Bio is a biological treatment method that regenerates damaged dentin, protects the dental nerve, and fundamentally blocks stimuli, which is expected to create significant impact not only in terms of fundamental treatment effects but also in reducing medical costs. In the future, development of treatments for cavities and periodontal disease will also be pursued.

Orion Group has declared a second leap forward as a global food and healthcare company, selecting beverages, convenient meal replacements, and bio-business as its three new core businesses. Currently, it has established a joint venture "Shandong Lukang Haoriyou" with the Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company "Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical," introducing promising domestic bio technologies to promote commercialization in China. In 2021, it completed the introduction of early colorectal cancer diagnosis technology from the domestic early cancer diagnosis specialist "Genomictree," and in February this year, it signed a joint tuberculosis vaccine development contract with the global vaccine specialist "Curatis," working closely to expand the vaccine pipeline in China.