Shaperon and Korea University to co-develop respiratory failure treatment

Shaperon, a Korean biotech firm listed on Kosdaq, signed a collaborative research agreement with Korea University's Research Institute for Medical Service Innovation on Wednesday to develop a treatment for respiratory failure that occurs during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery using NuSepin, an inflammatory complex inhibitor.

As the Covid-19 pandemic turned into a pandemic, Shaperon has sought to expand the indication of NuSepin, a treatment for Covid-19 pneumonia, to other inflammatory diseases.

“We presented our findings at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) annual meeting in San Francisco last October that NuSepin suppresses the systemic cytokine storm that occurs during cardiopulmonary bypass in large animals and maintains stable blood pressure by reducing vasorelaxation,” said Professor Yoon Seung-zhoo of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Korea University College of Medicine.

On May 23, the findings were approved for publication in Scientific Report, a sister journal of the international journal Nature.

“This collaboration will bring together Shaperon's expertise in inflammatory complexes and Korea University's capabilities in drug discovery, translational research, and clinical research to advance the management of complications following cardiac surgery, an area of significant unmet need,” Shaperon said.

The global market for systemic inflammatory response therapy is growing at an annual average rate of 7.4 percent and is expected to reach 32 trillion won ($23.4 billion) by 2030. In particular, the market for treating respiratory failure caused by systemic inflammatory response after heart surgery is growing rapidly and is expected to grow from about 2.2 trillion won in 2020 to 3.1 trillion won by 2030.