GC said it has entered into a development and option agreement with Acuitas Therapeutics, a Canada-based company, by licensing in the latter's lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system.

Under the accord, GC will use up to four LNP technologies owned by Acuitas to develop messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines or therapeutics.

LNP is a delivery system that injects messenger RNA (mRNA) into the body as nanoparticles and is a critical technology that enables the development of mRNA-based drugs. Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty applied Aquitas' LNP technology.

"I think that mRNA-based drugs will help improve human health," Acuitas Therapeutics CEO Thomas Madden said. "We are happy to be able to collaborate with GC to develop new vaccines and treatments."

GC CEO Huh Eun-chul said, "We are trying hard to apply various modalities to develop new drugs such as flu vaccines and rare disease treatments."

GC has been conducting research on mRNA as a next-generation drug development platform since 2017.

The company has made efforts to create synergy by grafting an AI platform to develop a treatment for rare mRNA diseases, such as signing a joint research agreement with the AI Research Institute of Seoul National University.