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SCM Life Science Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 298060 CEO Lee Byung-gun, hereinafter referred to as SCM Life Science) will join hands with U.S. bio-venture TerraImune (CEO Kim Yong-chan,TerraImmune, Inc.) to fight autoimmune diseases. Attention is focusing on the results of the two major bio companies with unrivaled technology in the field of stem cells and regulatory T-cells (CAR-Treg), respectively.

SCM Life Science announced on the 31st that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TerraImune for joint research and development of cell therapy for autoimmune diseases using stem cells and CAR-Treg.

Through this agreement, the two companies plan to apply a combination of SCM Life Science' high-purity stem cells and teraimun's CAR-Treg to autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, it will launch joint development of second-generation CAR-Treg treatments that do not use viruses.

The "layer separation culture method," the original technology of SCM Life Science, is a technology that separates and cultivates high-purity stem cells compared to the existing concentration gradient centrifugation method and develops them as a better effective treatment. The company emphasized that using homogeneous monoclonal stem cells enables customized treatment according to individual characteristics of patients.

CAR-Treg, which is being developed by TerraImune, is a treatment with a concept like CAR-T, which has recently been in the spotlight in the field of anticancer drugs. It has a big difference that it can be applied to autoimmune diseases by using regulatory T cells instead of cytotoxic T cells, which were previously mainly used in immuno-cancer drugs. In the case of cytotoxic T cells, side effects such as the so-called "cytokine storm," in which the immune system has reacted excessively and harms the body itself, have been frequently observed. On the other hand, TerraImune explains that using regulated T cells minimizes these side effects.

Currently, despite the possibility of CAR-Treg, the bio industry cites the production process to obtain regulated T cells that can be used for treatment as the biggest difficulty, but TerraImune is evaluated as having stable Treg proliferation technology to overcome these limitations.

Lee Byung-gun, CEO of SCM Life Science, said, "Through collaboration using global competitive TerraImune’s CAR-Treg production technology and SCM Life Science' high-purity stem cell technology, combined cell therapy for autoimmune disease treatment and non-viral gene introduction system are applied to CAR-Treg to enhance production efficiency."

Kim Yong-chan, CEO of Teraimun, said, "High-purity stem cells that help tissue regeneration in SCM Life Science and CAR-Treg, cell-specifically responsive immune cells, can be applied to various forms of autoimmune diseases. The joint study is expected to present new treatment directions for various autoimmune diseases currently considered refractory diseases, and the establishment of a cell combination treatment platform will show new hope to many patients and their families suffering from rare immune diseases.

Meanwhile, SCM Life Science was listed on the KOSDAQ market on June 17th as a bio company specializing in cell therapy with cGMP facilities in the U.S. after researching and developing next-generation high-purity stem cell therapy based on “Subfractionation Culturing Method” and immuno-CIK-CD19 and dendritic cells.

The main pipelines consist of treatments such as chronic GVHD, acute pancreatitis, atopic dermatitis, acute dyspnea syndrome, and liver cirrhosis, as well as acute lymphocytic leukemia treatment "CAR-CIK-CD19" and metastatic kidney cancer treatment "CMN-001".