Bio Eleven, a local biopharmaceutical company, said that it has signed a contract development organization (CDO) agreement with Samsung Biologics to receive the latter’s help in developing BN-101A, an immunotherapy candidate.

Under the accord, Samsung Biologics will provide a full scope of its CDO services, from developing cell lines and manufacturing non-clinical and clinical samples to submitting papers to apply for the investigational new drug.

The firm’s immunotherapy candidate, BN-101A, blocks programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) function and promotes anticancer T cell activity.

The company has confirmed the anticancer effect in cell and animal experiments compared to existing anticancer drugs and plan to enter a global phase 1 clinical trial by 2022.

“Bio Eleven has been in the microbiome business for the past decade and has been constructing big data for Korean intestinal bacteria by securing hundreds of probiotic strains,” the company said. “We are also operating Korea’s first fecal bank for fecal microbial transplantation.”

The company added that it has been focusing on developing microbiome combination treatments, which enhance the anticancer efficacy of immunotherapy drugs.

Bio Eleven CEO Kim Seok-jin said, “We will work closely with Samsung Biologics, which has global-level development capabilities based on our microbiome-based high-level development capability and differentiated expertise.”