South Korea’s GC Pharma establishes vaccine development firm Curevo

The newly established Seattle-based company's goal is to support GC Pharma's vaccine development activities.

GC Pharma builds a strategic collaboration and partnership with global health organizations IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) and MIBR (Mogam Institute for Biomedical Research) to form the new company.

Curevo represents an important next step in GC Pharma's vaccine business.

The new company will bring together GC Pharma's commercial scale vaccine development expertise and deep understanding of protein science with IDRI and MIBR's world class scientific expertise in vaccine, adjuvant and formulation development.

Initial work will centre on advancing an innovative vaccine candidate against shingles to clinical stage.

GC Pharma president EC Huh said: "Establishing Curevo signals a crucial step forward in GC Pharma's long-standing dedication to prevent potentially serious diseases.

"This exciting collaboration will increase the possibilities for immune-compromised populations to have better options."

IDRI president, CEO and founder Steve Reed said: "The bottom line is that this new collaboration will take advantage of the combined strength of these three organizations to more rapidly develop infectious disease vaccines and bring them to market.”

MIBR president and director Senyon Teddy Choe said: "MIBR scientists have been focusing on discovering novel cancer therapeutics and vaccines. Curevo creates an excellent conduit to achieve those goals by joining forces with GC Pharma and IDRI.”

Corey Casper, M. D., M. P. H. IDRI's chief medical officer will lead the shingles project of the new company. Dr. Casper has more than 20 years of experience in designing, growing and sustaining internationally recognized programs in infection-related cancer, HIV, infection control and global oncology.

 He also has extensive experience leading multi-phased international clinical trials.

Source: Company Press Release.