SPHEBIO-Xcell Therapeutics Announce Collaboration for Exosome Mass Production Business 

SPHEBIO (CEO Ahn Geun-sun), a company that develops exosome culture platforms, and Xcell Therapeutics (CEO Lee Yi-il), a leading culture medium company, announced on the 7th that they have signed a strategic partnership agreement to build an exosome mass culture platform.

Through the signing of this business agreement, the two companies plan to establish an 'exosome mass production platform' by securing 'stability' and 'productivity' through the grafting of spheroid-derived exosome production technology possessed by SPHEBIO and dedicated media possessed by Xcell Therapeutics. Through this, the company aims to actively respond to the domestic and international exosome-related markets that are growing rapidly every year.

According to market research firm DBMR Research, the global exosome-related market is expected to grow from $11.74 billion (KRW 14 trillion) in 2021 to $36.92 billion (KRW 38 trillion) in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of about 21.9%.

Exosomes are tens of nanometers (nm) in size (1 nm is one billionth of a meter) "vesicles" that reside in the cells of mammals, including humans. Since exosomes are bio-derived, they have high drug delivery effectiveness and fewer side effects, so they are widely used for drug gene and vaccine delivery. In particular, it is evaluated that it can be applied to diseases that were previously difficult to access due to its superior safety compared to cell therapy.

SPHEBIO is a venture company founded in 2020 by CEO Ahn Geun-sun, who was developing tissue engineering and cell therapeutics at T&R Biofab.

The company is currently researching and developing technology that can be uniformly and mass-produced using precise cell aggregate production technology, with the goal of developing 3D bioprinting-based cell spheroid platform technology.

In addition, our vision is to pursue innovation in the bio industry by researching and developing future application technologies based on an integrated production technology platform that is fused with exosome production technology.

Ltd. is the world's first company to develop GMP-grade serum-free chemically defined media for hMSCs, and has been recognized for its media technology both domestically and overseas. In particular, it owns and operates a GMP-grade production plant in Yongin that can produce 100,000 liters per year.

Xcell Therapeutics was selected as a 2020 Bio Innovative Company in recognition of its excellent technology and received the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Award, and last year, the company received the New Excellent Product certification, the most prestigious certificate issued by the Korean government.

At the signing ceremony, Dr. Ahn Geun-sun, CEO of SPHEBIO, said, "Despite their outstanding efficacy, exosomes have been considered unviable for industrialization due to their very low production efficiency. By establishing exosome mass production platform technology through this business agreement, we will be able to lead the future promising technology in a very strong way based on commercialization."

"Xcell Therapeutics has been preparing for the development of exosome-specific media since before exosomes became popular in the market," said Dr. Lee. "With the commercialization of exosome-specific media within the year, we believe this is a great opportunity to demonstrate the scalability of our media development technology. We will do our best to create a successful cooperation model between technology-based ventures."

Source : Biotimes (http://www.biotimes.co.kr)