Daewoong, HanAll invest in US firm for Parkinson's disease treatment

Daewoong Pharmaceutical and HanAll Biopharma said they will jointly invest in Vincere Biosciences, a Parkinson's disease drug development company based in Cambridge, Mass.

With this investment, the three companies will explore opportunities to collaborate on the development of new treatments for Parkinson's disease, as well as to utilize Vincere's AI platform for clinical trial design and patient candidate selection.

However, the company did not unveil the amount of the investment, citing contractual reasons.

Vincere, founded in 2018 by Dr. Spring Behrouz, is a biotech company that uses its proprietary AI platform to develop treatments for degenerative diseases caused by aging, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

According to Daewoong, when mitochondria in cells are damaged or reach the end of their lifespan, they undergo a process called mitophagy, which can lead to neurodegeneration, muscle weakness, and other degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Vincere's candidate aims to enhance mitophagy activity in the body to increase the proportion of healthy mitochondria and hinder the progression of Parkinson's disease.

In recognition of this, the company has received four grants since 2019 from The Michael J. Fox Foundation, a Parkinson's disease research foundation founded by Hollywood actor Michael J. Fox. The company has also received funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), which provides research grants to scientists who demonstrate outstanding research performance and potential.

"We are very pleased to establish a close collaboration with Vincere to accelerate the development of innovative therapeutics for anti-aging and chronic degenerative diseases, one of Daewoong's key target areas in recent years," said Daewoong Pharmaceutical CEO Jeon Seng-ho said.

HanAll Biopharma CEO and President Jeong Seung-won also said, "Vincere has the potential to completely change the way we approach the development of Parkinson's drugs by incorporating AI technology into the drug discovery process.

The three companies will share their research know-how to synergize the development of Parkinson's drugs and continue to explore ways to collaborate in the drug discovery process, including the discovery of candidates using AI, Jeong added.

Spring Behrouz added that the collaboration joins forces to develop disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's disease, and the strategic sharing of Daewoong's and HanAll's clinical research achievements will help the company gain a deeper understanding of this aging, degenerative disease.

"We look forward to a productive partnership to accelerate the delivery of treatments to patients with Parkinson's disease," Behrouz added.