[IB Tomato] (VC Portfolio) Villix, Containing the Identity of Reverse Idea and Novelty
[IB Tomato Reporter Lim Seong-ji] “The new drug development industry is a specialized area that is difficult for general investors and shareholders to understand, and it is difficult to deliver accurate information even when publicly available. The bad examples of some companies that have been inflated even with content are hindering the development of the Korean pharmaceutical and bio industry. Vilix will devote itself to developing accurate new drugs through high-quality research on the bilirubin platform.”
Myung-Rip Kim, CEO of Vilix, who served as the head of the in vitro diagnostic business at SK Telecom (017670) , the CEO of Nano Entec (039860) , and the head of the business and research center at Eutilex (263050) , showed confidence in the bilirubin platform technology.
Bilirubin is a yellowish-brown substance present in bile that is produced when hemoglobin, a component of red blood cells, is metabolized when red blood cells that have reached the end of their life are decomposed. When levels of bilirubin increase, jaundice occurs, in which the skin or whites of the eyes turn yellow. By measuring the level of bilirubin, the presence and severity of diseases such as liver and biliary tract can be diagnosed, so bilirubin was considered an unfavorable substance. Numerous clinicians and scientists have tried to medicate bilirubin, but the main reason that it was unsuccessful is that bilirubin is insoluble in water and has very hydrophobic properties.
Villix, which overcame the limitations of bilirubin with technology, successfully completed a series A investment worth 14 billion won in the first half of 2021, and is in the process of attracting up to 30 billion won of follow-up investment in 2022.
Initiation of bilirubin drugization
There are about 70,000 papers so far that bilirubin is effective for various diseases, but it has not been formulated as a drug due to its insoluble nature. To overcome this limitation, Professor Sang-Yong Jeon (co-founder) of KAIST and his team attached a chemical substance called PEG (polyethylene glycol) to bilirubin, and combined the characteristics of bilirubin and PEG through pegylation to make bilirubin easily soluble in water from hydrophobicity. transformed into a usable material. Myung-Rip Kim, CEO of Vilix said, “The research team led by Professor Sang-Yong Jeon of KAIST’s research team has proven the effectiveness of treatment in eight animal models of eight types of disease as a way to solve the hydrophobicity of bilirubin over the past 7 years, and based on this, the publication was successful.” .
The core of Vilix is the bilirubin platform technology. When pegylated bilirubin enters water, it safely transforms into nano-particle micelles, which are circular nanoparticles with a diameter of about 100 nanometers. The PEGylated bilirubin has a substance called bilirubin on the inside and PEG on the outside, so it can safely enter the water. If you leave the empty part of the inner circle as it is, it becomes an anti-inflammatory treatment by itself, so if you put an anticancer drug in the empty space, it wraps around the anticancer drug without causing any chemical reaction.
CEO Kim Myung-lip said, “When an anticancer drug is loaded into the ball, the substance tracks the cancer in the body like a torpedo is fired from a submarine. It plays a role,” he explained. He continued, “The drug is not toxic when it moves around in the body, but when chasing cancer and entering the tumor, it encounters active oxygen, and these particles break apart and disintegrate, releasing the anticancer drug contained in it, enabling tumor tracking treatment. There will be,” he said.
So far, it is known that there is no drug delivery system that can directly spread anticancer drugs like Vilix technology. In addition, by loading a diagnostic contrast agent, the potential for development into a platform technology used as a cancer diagnostic contrast agent is increasing. CEO Kim Myung-rip said, “I think Vilix’s technology is scalable, and if the technology is complex, it will be difficult to succeed. The more complex the mechanism and mechanism, the more things to be solved.” He said, “The future direction of new drug development is to develop a platform that covers various inflammatory diseases, cancer diagnosis, and treatment of various diseases rather than applying only one or two diseases. became,” he said.
Increase financial stability through continuous investment attraction
Since its establishment in 2018, Vilix received seed investment from DS Asset Management and Alpine Route Asset Management, and Estech Pharma (041910) invested KRW 2 billion as a strategic investor (SI). And DS Asset Management made follow-up investments in Series A in the first half of last year, and Magna Investment, We Ventures, Industrial Bank of Korea (024110) , and Genaxis also participated as financial investors (FIs). As a strategic investor (SI), Estech Pharma followed on, and Soulbrain Holdings also invested in a series A worth of 14 billion won. CEO Kim Myung-rip said, “There is a thought that the standard for Series A is higher than in the past, but the fact that it received 14 billion won in itself proves that the expectations for Vilix’s corporate value and future growth value are high. We will develop into a company that makes success stories of K-Pharma.”
Vilix is preparing for Series B in 2022, and has set the size of the Series B attraction at 30 billion won. CEO Kim Myung-rip said, “It is important to make quantitative ones to create normal results. He continued, “If that is the vision of Villix and the goal is achieved, we will create the best R&D system.”