KOREAN NET

Deputy Minister of Science and ICT Hwang Pan-Sik on Oct. 21 explains at Government Complex-Seoul an overseas biotechnology export by a startup with investment from the government-funded Korea Institute of Science and Technology. (Yonhap News)

By Koh Hyunjeong

A domestic startup with investment from a public think tank will export a drug for Alzheimer's disease that the company developed to an Italian pharmaceutical corporation.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Oct. 21 said Cureverse, which was incubated by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, concluded a large-scale technology transfer deal with the Rome-based Angelini Pharma.

The contract's value of USD 370 million is the largest technology export by a Korean public research institute.

CV-01 is an Alzheimer's medicine taken orally instead of injected, and its easy administration is recognized as having high value. The drug's ability to selectively bind only to the disease's causative agents has raised expectations for reducing side effects.

"CV-01 has the groundbreaking potential to treat diseases of the brain and nervous system like dementia, epilepsy and Parkinson's," Cureverse CEO Cho Sung Jin said. "This will be good news for patients suffering from neurological disorders and their families.”

Deputy Minister of Science and ICT Hwang Pan-Sik, who heads the ministry's Office of Research and Development Policy, said, "We will continue promoting policy and projects to commercialize technology to develop new medicines."

hjkoh@korea.kr