OliX Pharmaceuticals develops ribonucleotide technologies for untreatable diseases

Country Business Reports interviews and articles by Discovery Reports

Considered as the third-generation therapeutic platform, ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) works by suppressing disease-causing genes. While older therapeutic modalities comprising molecules and antibodies cure illnesses by fighting disease-causing proteins, RNAi prevents such proteins from developing in the first place. Furthermore, because RNAi can target every gene in the human genome, the medical breakthrough can address disorders previously considered untreatable.

This has been the focus of Dr Lee Dong-ki’s academic research that serves as the foundation of OliX Pharmaceuticals, a first-mover biotechnology company with a growing number of proprietary nucleotide solutions at various stages of clinical development.

“The platform technology was developed in my academic laboratory for many years, and I have filed various patents, which I thought could be translated into a real drug development,” says Lee, OliX’s CEO, who is also a chemistry professor at Sungkyunkwan University. “That is how I founded OliX in 2010, and since then, we have been really fortunate to be able to draw funding from mostly local venture capitalists to initiate various pipelines starting with diseases affecting the skin, eyes and lungs.”

What sets the publicly listed company apart is its development of cp-asiRNA, a propriety technology that has eliminated the side effects normally experienced with RNAi therapeutics. OliX’s most advanced programme in this field can prevent skin scars, which is in its second phase of clinical trials in South Korea. In October this year, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved phase 2a clinical trials for this pioneering medication for hypertrophic scarring, which normally occurs after surgery. The biotechnology expert also has eye programmes targeting age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and subretinal fibrosis. The company has expanded its existing collaboration with a leading French eye-care specialist, Laboratoires Théa, to develop four ophthalmic programmes, which include two on AMD.