Samsung Life Sciences Fund makes 1st investment in domestic biotech, AimedBio

Samsung Biologics said on Wednesday that Samsung Life Science Fund made an equity investment in  AIMEDBIO, a domestic company specializing in therapeutic solutions for neuro-oncological and neuro-degenerative diseases.

This marks the fund’s fourth investment after previous investments in foreign companies including Jaguar Gene Therapy, a U.S. gene therapy development company, in March 2022, Senda Biosciences, a U.S. nanoparticle drug delivery developer, in May 2022, and Araris Biotech, a Swiss ADC technology company, earlier in April.

However, AimedBio is the fund’s first investment in a domestic company. It has been attracting attention for developing a pipeline of proprietary technologies based on research results from Samsung Medical Center (SMC) in advanced bio platform technologies related to multi-omics, precision medicine, and translational research.

Accordingly, AimedBio plans to apply AI analysis of clinical and genomic information from tumor patients and patient-derived experimental models to increase the development success of biologics such as antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). 

Consequently, AimedBio has received support from the Korea Drug Development Foundation (KDDF) for three new drug candidates, of which AMB302 is a FGFR3-targeting ADC first-in-class candidate for glioblastoma and bladder cancer, which will enter the first clinical trial next year. 

On the other hand, AimedBio is strengthening its competitiveness by establishing a collaboration system with overseas advanced ADC technology developers such as China's GeneQuantum. 

Based on the equity investment, Samsung Biologics plans to collaborate with AimedBio in several areas, including conducting joint research on ADC toolbox development and performing contract development organization (CDO) assignments for a single antibody-based atopic dementia treatment, AMB001. 

The fund is operating with a total of 170 billion won (approximately 128 million won) with 150 billion won invested from  Samsung C&T and Samsung Biologics in 2021 and 20 billion won from Samsung Bioepis in January 2023.

Samsung Life Science Fund plans to continue to discover domestic biocompanies with advanced technologies and establish multifaceted partnerships such as investment, joint research, and CDO contracts to revitalize the K-bio ecosystem.