K-Bio Firms Pursue "First Indications" with Precision as Technology Out-Licensing Deals Mount

[Financial News] As technology out-licensing deals by South Korean biotech firms have followed one another in quick succession, the choice of a first indication is emerging as a key strategy for proving technological competitiveness. Companies first apply their technologies to diseases where drug efficacy is easy to assess, achieve results, and then expand into other diseases. Rather than targeting multiple diseases from the outset, they first demonstrate their capabilities in areas "where they can excel."
 According to industry sources on the 28th, South Korean biotechs including INGENIA Therapeutics, OliX and D&D Pharmatech have been demonstrating the potential of their core technologies through this strategy after achieving technology-transfer successes.
Founded in Boston and listed on South Korea's stock market last August, INGENIA Therapeutics is developing an antibody therapy that restores damaged microvasculature. The first indications it selected were wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, conditions in which weakened blood vessels in the eye leak blood or fluid and impair vision. These diseases are characterized by retinal swelling and declining vision as blood components leak from abnormally developed blood vessels. They are well suited for assessing the efficacy of INGENIA's technology, which stabilizes blood vessels and prevents leakage. In particular, the eye allows doctors to directly observe changes in blood vessels and the retina after drug administration, making treatment effects relatively easy to assess objectively.
 The lead candidate IGT-427 was out-licensed in 2022 during the preclinical stage. A global Phase 3 trial is currently underway under MSD's leadership for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. After validating its technology in retinal diseases, INGENIA is expanding its application to chronic kidney disease, in which microvascular damage is associated with declining kidney function. The chronic kidney disease candidate IGT-303 is currently in a Phase 2a trial in Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
 OliX is developing RNA therapeutics that reduce disease-causing proteins by suppressing the activity of specific genes. Because delivering a drug to the desired organ is crucial for this technology, OliX first applied it to skin and eye diseases, where direct drug delivery is relatively easier. After securing technology that enables drug delivery to the liver, the company expanded into metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), in which fat accumulates in the liver and causes inflammation. In February 2025, OliX signed an out-licensing agreement with Eli Lilly for its candidate OLX702A worth up to $630 million, and the candidate is preparing to enter Phase 2. OliX is subsequently expanding its drug-delivery capabilities to adipose tissue, muscle and the central nervous system.
 D&D Pharmatech is developing technology that converts injectable drugs into oral medications. The company's first application of this technology was obesity treatment. Because obesity treatments with proven efficacy were already being used as injections, demand for oral medications was clear. Drug efficacy could also be assessed relatively easily through the numerical measure of changes in body weight. After licensing an oral obesity drug candidate to Metsera in 2023, D&D Pharmatech signed agreements covering a total of six products worth more than KRW 1 trillion. Metsera was acquired by Pfizer in 2025, and development of candidates based on Oralink is continuing.
An industry official said, "The first indication has become more than simply selecting the disease for which to start a clinical trial; it has become the stage where a technology first proves that it works in actual patients." The official added, "Securing sufficient data from the first indication makes it easier to expand the technology to other diseases and helps reduce costs and risks during the development of follow-on indications."
[email protected] Jung Sang-hee Reporter