Surginex Selected as a "Scale-Up Tips" by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

Surginex (CEO Sejun Kim), a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology company, announced that it has been selected for the 'Scale-up Tips' program hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and will receive a total of KRW 1.14 billion in investment-linked research and development (R&D) funding over the next three years.

"Scale-Up Tips" is a private-sector-led program that identifies promising small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies and supports their accelerated growth. Surgenex plans to use the funds to build an automated LNP screening system and develop next-generation LNPs optimized for target tissues and administration routes.

LNP was used as a delivery vehicle for mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its scope of application has recently expanded to gene therapy, cancer vaccines, and metabolic diseases.

Surginex owns its own intellectual property (IP) related to LNPs and has completed primate toxicity testing and standardized production processes. The company has begun building an automated screening system to optimize LNPs for various indications, expecting this to shorten development time and enable the rapid development of LNPs tailored to target tissues.

Currently, the Moderna-Merck consortium is conducting a phase 3 clinical trial combining an LNP-based personalized mRNA cancer vaccine with the immuno-oncology drug Keytruda, and BioNTech is also expanding multinational clinical trials of its LNP-based melanoma and lung cancer vaccine candidates.

Last year, Serginex attracted a total of 8.5 billion won in investment from Laguna Investment, Kiwoom Investment, Partners Investment, Hana Ventures, POSCO Technology Investment, and LSK Investment.

In addition, Surginex secured the LNP pipeline by recruiting Professor Lee Hyuk-jin of Ewha Womans University, a disciple of Moderna founder Professor Robert Langer, as CTO and Vice President in August 2023.

Kim Se-jun, CEO of Surginex, said, “With this selection as a ‘Scale-Up Tips’ company, we will focus on securing global licensing results by supplying LNPs optimized for RNA therapeutics and presenting technologies that meet the demands of global companies.”

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