HealthBiome said that its HB03 anticancer microbiome drug obtained domestic patents for the administration of the anticancer microbiome alone or in combination with chemo or immuno-oncology drugs across multiple carcinomas on Friday.

HealthBiome is a start-up company of the Korea Institute of Biotechnology (KRIBB) and was founded to develop anaerobic human microbiome-based treatments for cancer, dementia, autism, Parkinson's disease, immune disease, and health-functional foods.

The company confirmed the effectiveness of Akkermansia muciniphila, the anaerobic strains used in HB03, as an anti-cancer drug candidate in preclinical trials in September 2020 and subsequently applied for patents overseas and in Korea.

HB03 is a treatment that exhibits excellent anticancer activity that can be treated in various types of cancers such as colorectal, lung, pancreatic, melanoma, glioblastoma, and sarcoma.

With this patent registration, HealthBiome plans to complete the follow-up non-clinical trial of HB03 as soon as possible and actively prepare for clinical trials. In addition, overseas patent registrations in the United States, Europe, Japan, and China are currently in the final stage.

These patents are expected to give HealthBiome a competitive advantage as a leading company in the development of microbiome anti-cancer therapeutics, said a company official.

"These domestic patents are of great significance to the company," HealthBiome CEO Byung-Chan Kim said. "We will do our best to also secure patents to Akkermansia therapeutics in other large anticancer drug markets overseas to accelerate commercialization in the future."