The E&M announced on the 3rd that its affiliate Luca AI Cell (hereinafter ‘Luca’) has signed a platform technology licensing agreement for next-generation antiviral universal therapeutics with DXVX. According to DXVX’s electronic disclosure the previous day, the contract scale and commercialization milestones are confidential due to a non-disclosure agreement.
This technology is a universal therapeutic technology for coronavirus and its variants infections, utilizing Luca’s unique AviPep (Antiviral Peptide) related patents. It includes coronaviruses such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which have troubled humanity, as well as potentially risky viruses that could cause the next pandemic.
The LEAD (Lipid Envelope Antiviral Disruption) peptide therapeutic developed by Luca is a treatment that shows effective antiviral activity against various viruses. This technology physically destroys specific viruses by recognizing only a certain curvature of the virus surface composed of lipids. Since it selectively attacks viruses with a diameter of 200 nanometers or less, it does not affect normal human cells.
It also has the advantage of quickly responding to viral mutations. Accordingly, it can be applied not only to coronaviruses but also to the treatment of deadly viruses such as Zika, Ebola, Dengue, and Marburg viruses.
In particular, this LEAD method is not effective only for a single virus but can also be applied to Disease X, an unpredictable disease that may emerge in the future. This technology has previously been recognized for its value as next-generation virus research, having been selected for the AViDD (Antiviral Drug Discovery) program by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Seunghee Ahn, CEO of Luca, said, “With DXVX, which has new drug development technology and commercialization capabilities, the commercialization and global business timeline of the therapeutic has been accelerated,” adding, “By having intellectual property rights for core antiviral technology held by a domestic pharmaceutical company, we will be able to prepare for the next pandemic.”
A representative of The E&M said, “This contract is significant in that Luca’s R&D achievements have been recognized as high value-added technology in the bio industry,” and added, “We will continue to commercialize with leading domestic and international companies through technology transfer and new drug commercialization using Luca’s unique technology.”
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