OliX Pharmaceuticals Launches New Subsidiary to Develop mRNA Vaccines and Therapeutics

SUWON, Republic of Korea, Feb. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OliX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (KOSDAQ: 226950), a leading developer of RNAi therapeutics, has announced the establishment of mCureX Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary focused on the research and development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines and therapeutics.

Based in South Korea, mCureX will initially focus on developing mRNA-based vaccines for human diseases including COVID-19, as well as animal diseases. mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics contain the genetic instructions for the body to produce proteins that may stimulate and train the immune system to prevent disease or produce proteins that are deficient within a cell to treat disease. mRNA technology has been used in two COVID-19 vaccines recently granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“We launched mCureX to address a number of health crises, including the global public health crisis of COVID-19, leveraging our expertise in RNA-based drug discovery and development,” said Dong Ki Lee, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of OliX Pharmaceuticals. “mRNA represents a rapidly advancing and nimble platform that complements our existing RNAi drug development platform as we develop therapeutics and vaccines for urgent and unmet medical needs in Korea and beyond.”

Dong Won Shin, Ph.D., chief technology officer of mCureX, will oversee the R&D department. Dr. Shin has over 20 years of experience in mRNA and oligonucleotide chemistry, serving most recently as director of oligonucleotide chemistry at OliX Pharmaceuticals and senior staff scientist at TriLink BioTechnologies. He developed the foundational technology of mRNA 5’-capping, which is used in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The company also announced the addition of Anton McCaffrey, Ph.D. to mCureX’s Scientific Advisory Board, which will provide guidance on the subsidiary’s research and development strategy and emerging pipeline. Dr. McCaffrey has over two decades of experience in oligonucleotide therapeutic research and development, having served as senior director of R&D biology at TriLink BioTechnologies and as assistant professor at the University of Iowa.

About OliX Pharmaceuticals

OliX Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics against a variety of disorders by down-regulating expression of disease-causing genes, based on its own proprietary RNAi technology. The Company’s core RNAi platform, asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA), is a unique gene silencing technology based on RNA interference (RNAi), which is considered as the most efficient gene silencing technology. Based on asiRNA technology, OliX has developed cell penetrating asiRNA (cp-asiRNA), a therapeutic RNAi platform to effectively target locally administrable diseases, such as hypertrophic scar, dry and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), subretinal fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and neuropathic pain. OliX has also developed another therapeutic RNAi platform, GalNAc-asiRNA, to target a variety of liver diseases.

To learn more about the company, visit https://www.olixpharma.com/eng/

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