Kolon Life Science said Friday that its patent for recombinant vaccinia virus and use thereof, a platform technology for anticancer therapeutics, was recently granted recognition by the European Patent Office (EPO).

To overcome the limitations of the vaccinia virus, which kills tumors but also kills normal cells, Kolon Life Science developed a vaccinia virus platform that recombines the expression of some genes to selectively kill tumors.

Three vaccinia virus genes, K3L, which inhibits the action of Protein Kinase R (PKR), which prevents viral replication, Thymidine Kinase (TK), which helps the biosynthesis of nucleotides, and Vaccinia Growth Factor (VGF), which promotes cell growth, help the virus to replicate once it enters normal cells in the human body.

Recombinant viruses do not grow in normal cells but selectively multiply in cancer cells to destroy them, the company said.

With this recognition, Kolon Life Science has obtained EU rights to substances and their use developed through the recombinant vaccinia virus platform, which inhibits the expression of the K3L, TK, and VGF genes.

This is expected to help Kolon Life Science develop its overseas business in the fast-growing anti-cancer gene therapy market, company officials said.

"Recombinant vaccinia virus is significant in that it can be used as a platform for various projects in the future," said Kim Sun-jin, CEO of Kolon Life Science. "We believe that it will be possible to develop various anti-cancer drugs by recombining various genes into the recombinant vaccinia virus platform."