Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Hanall Biopharma said they have invested $1 million in Alloplex Biotherapeutics, a U.S. new drug developer, to find new immunotherapy agents.

The two companies plan to engage in mid- to long-term cooperation to develop Alloplex's immunotherapy treatment. Alloplex is a bio company with an immunotherapy platform, founded in 2016 by Doctor Frank Borriello, an immunologist from Harvard University with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

"The U.S. company is developing autologous cell therapy derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells targeting a wide range of tumors," Daewoong said. "Through this investment, Alloplex is one step closer to entering the phase 1 clinical trial of Suplexa, an immunotherapy agent, planned for the first half of 2022."

Alloplex CEO Borriello also said, "We thank Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Hanall Biopharma for their trust in Alloplex through this investment."

Alloplex will lead a successful collaboration by drawing good results from the clinical trial of Suplexa, which will start its phase 1 clinical trial in Australia in the first half of next year, Borriello added.

Immunotherapy extracts the patient's immune cells, strengthens their anticancer power, and then injects them back into the body to fight cancer cells. The treatment, which uses the patient's cells rather than external substances, is a fourth-generation anticancer drug that minimizes side effects without touching normal cells and maximizes the anticancer effect.