[Aju News DB]
South Korea's Cha Biotech Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to set up a joint venture with US biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics to develop a new type of anti-cancer medicine using natural killer cells.
Cha Biotech said the two companies would invest two million US dollars each in the joint venture. The South Korean company's share is 51 percent and the rest will be controlled by Sorrento.
Cha Biotech, a research subsidiary of Cha University, has been the front-runner in the development of stem cells and cell therapy products in South Korea. Sorrento, based in in San Diego, is an antibody-centric, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing new treatments for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
Under the control of Cha Biotech, the joint venture will focus on developing next-generation anti-cancer drugs using natural killer cells (NK cells), which play a major role in the host-rejection of both tumours and virally infected cells.
Cha University researchers have been allowed to conduct a five-year research using 600 human eggs to clone human embryos and extract stem cells for treatment of incurable diseases such as cerebral apoplexy and optic nerve damage.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
