Daewoong Pharmaceutical Secures U.S. Patent Decision for Ionizable Lipid, Accelerates Anti-Aging Drug Development

[Financial News] Daewoong Pharmaceutical is accelerating the development of anti-aging drugs after receiving a decision to register a U.S. patent for its ionizable lipid technology, a core element of mRNA-based cell reprogramming. Daewoong Pharmaceutical said on the 27th that the ionizable lipid technology, the core source technology of its lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platform eTurna, which it acquired from Turn Biotechnologies, has received a patent registration decision from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
This patent covers "lipid structures and compositions containing the same" and includes the ionizable lipid structure used to deliver therapeutic nucleic acids such as mRNA to target cells, as well as the LNP technology based on it.
The patent registration decision means the application has passed USPTO review and is expected to be formally registered after the remaining procedures are completed. Once registration is finalized, Daewoong Pharmaceutical will secure rights to the ionizable lipid technology in the United States.
Ionizable lipids are a key component of LNPs and play a role in delivering mRNA to desired cells in the body. Because mRNA can easily break down in the body, LNP technology that protects it stably and delivers it into cells is considered a crucial factor in the development of mRNA therapeutics.
This patent is Daewoong Pharmaceutical's first global patent achievement since it acquired Turn Biotechnologies' cell reprogramming-related intellectual property and assets in May. At that time, Daewoong Pharmaceutical also succeeded to the licensor position in the exclusive technology transfer agreement for the cell reprogramming platform that had been signed between Turn Biotechnologies and HanAll Biopharma.
The ERA platform secured by Daewoong Pharmaceutical is a partial reprogramming technology that delivers reprogramming factors in mRNA form to aged cells, restoring their function to a younger state while preserving cell identity. eTurna plays the role of delivering the mRNA to target cells in this process.
In particular, the patent specification includes results showing that when LNPs were delivered to human dermal fibroblasts and aged tissue, type VII collagen expression and cell proliferation increased, while aging markers decreased. It also confirmed delivery efficiency and cell viability in T cells and other immune cells, suggesting potential applications beyond skin diseases to immune disorders and intractable age-related diseases.
As mRNA technology expands beyond COVID-19 vaccines into areas such as cancer treatment, Daewoong Pharmaceutical sees anti-aging as a next-generation application field.
According to market research firm Precedence Research, the global anti-aging therapeutics market is projected to grow to about $9.3 billion by 2035. Global companies such as Altos Labs and Life Biosciences are also developing anti-aging technologies based on cell reprogramming.
With this U.S. patent registration, Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to strengthen its intellectual property competitiveness in mRNA delivery platforms and raise the global commercialization potential of its anti-aging pipeline.
Park Sung-soo, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, "This decision to register a U.S. patent is an important step in strengthening our technological competitiveness in the global mRNA therapeutics market," adding, "By combining proven core technology with Daewoong Pharmaceutical's R&D capabilities, we will swiftly advance preclinical pipelines into clinical trials and prove our corporate value through the development of global anti-aging drugs."

[email protected] Kang Jung-mo Reporter