GC Biopharma said Monday that it signed a joint R&D agreement last Friday with Korean biotech firm Novelty Nobility, which specializes in antibody drug development, to collaborate on a treatment for geographic atrophy (GA).

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the primary cause of blindness in the elderly, is divided into two types: dry and wet. GA, an advanced form of dry AMD, typically occurs in the late stages, damaging retinal tissue and causing blindness. More than 1.5 million people in the U.S. suffer from GA, with approximately 25,000 cases reported in Korea last year.

The first GA treatment, Syfovre (pegcetacoplan), developed by Massachusetts-based Apellis Pharmaceuticals, was launched in the U.S. last year but showed limited efficacy, only slightly slowing GA progression without restoring lost vision and raising concerns over side effects such as wet AMD and inflammation in some patients.

“This highlights a need for GA treatments with better safety and effectiveness,” a GC Biopharma official said, adding that their joint study would focus on “overcoming the limitations of existing treatments.”

Under the partnership, GC Biopharma and Novelty Nobility will collaborate across all development stages—from identifying candidate antibody-based protein therapeutics to preclinical and clinical trials and eventual commercialization. In the initial phase, the joint research will focus on identifying a target protein involved in GA pathology and developing a candidate to inhibit it, followed by a proof-of-concept study.

Jeong Jae-uk, executive vice president and head of R&D at GC Biopharma, expressed optimism about the partnership’s potential to create synergy by merging Novelty Nobility’s expertise in antibody-based retinal treatments with GC Biopharma’s protein therapeutic technology. “Through open innovation,” he said, “we aim to actively expand into new therapeutic areas beyond our focus on blood products and rare diseases.”

Park Sang-gyu, CEO of Novelty Nobility, added, "We have been developing a next-generation wet AMD treatment using our proprietary antibodies for many years, and we intend to expand this expertise to GA with this opportunity.”