Genexine  a publicly-listed, clinical-stage Korean biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of novel biologics for the treatment of serious unmet medical needs, announced a merger with EPD Biotherapeutics (hereinafter referred to as 'EPD Bio'), a company developing an innovative targeted protein degradation (TPD) bioPROTAC platform technology, to strengthen its research workforce with expertise in PROTAC technology and enhance Genexine’s drug pipeline.

“Through this merger, Genexine has secured key talent with innovative technology that can lead the global market and at the same time added innovative new drugs based on bioPROTAC technology. Combining EPD Bio’s bioPROTAC technology with Genexine’s clinical and CMC development capabilities will enable us to continue pursuing the development of innovative new drugs that can lead the global market,” said Sungjune Hong, CEO of Genexine.

EPD Bio founder and CEO Dr. Jaehyun Choi, an expert in the field of targeted protein degradation technology, previously worked at Arvinas, a global leader in PROTAC (Proteolysis targeting chimera) technology and held research and scientific positions at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Trillium Therapeutics. Following the merger, Dr. Choi will join Genexine as a representative director in charge of R&D along with EPD Bio's core research team. Mr. Hong will continue as a representative director overseeing corporate development and business management.

Genexine announced that, at the board of directors meeting held on June 26^th, it decided to merge with EPD Bio through a small-scale merger. The merger ratio is 1:6.1924079, and Genexine will issue new shares to the existing shareholders of EPD Bio according to the merger ratio. Detailed merger procedures are scheduled to be completed by early October.

EPD Bio is developing EPDeg^TM, an mRNA-based bioPROTAC technology that can overcome the limitations of existing small molecule- based PROTAC technology. The platform creates fusion-protein degraders delivered as mRNA-LNP whereby they remove the dependence on tissue specific expression of E3 ligase. As a unique technology with a potential to be first-in-class, it can generate a diverse pipeline of TPDs for multiple undruggable targets in different disease indications. EPD Bio has been receiving significant attention from the industry domestically and internationally as EPD Bio won the ‘Korea Startup/Biopharma Acceleration Program 2023’ led by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and Takeda Pharmaceutical which supports domestic bio pharmaceutical companies to discover and develop innovative technologies.

RM Global Partners LLC acted as Genexine’s strategic advisor.