-'Daewoong Pharmaceutical enters research collaboration to discover a novel 
small molecule to target autoimmune diseases using fragment-based drug 
discovery and virtual high throughput screening

Daewoong Pharmaceutical has entered a research collaboration with Sygnature 
Discovery to expand its global open innovation for novel drug development.

On the 18th April, Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEO Seng-ho Jeon and Lee Chang-jae) 
has announced a research collaboration with Sygnature Discovery (CEO Simon 
Hirst), a global integrated drug discovery company, to discover a novel small 
molecule to target autoimmune diseases.

Sygnature Discovery will provide its proprietary Fragment-Based Drug Discovery 
(FBDD) and virtual high throughput screening (vHTS) to accelerate Daewoong's 
novel drug discovery for autoimmune diseases. Additionally, Daewoong will 
receive support in protein science and crystallography to validate and secure 
mechanism of action. Through this collaboration, Daewoong Pharmaceutical 
expects to broaden its drug discovery scope to the field of protein-protein 
interaction (PPI) as a part of next-generation drug discovery strategy.

Sygnature Discovery is an integrated drug discovery company established in 2004 
to support early drug development and clinical trials. Based in Nottingham, 
United Kingdom, the company provides intellectual input and drug discovery 
expertise to accelerate target validation, hit identification, hit-to-lead, 
lead optimisation and drug discovery programmes. The company's capabilities 
include medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo biology, HTS, computational 
chemistry and informatics, DMPK, form and formulation and protein 
crystallography. Sygnature Discovery has a market-leading track record in drug 
discovery including 22 compounds delivered into the clinic (Phases I to III) 
since 2011, 41 compounds into pre-clinical development and over 170 patent 
applications with Sygnature Discovery scientists named as inventors.

Simon Hirst, CEO of Sygnature Discovery, commented that "We are delighted to be 
working with the talented team of scientists at Daewoong Pharmaceutical on this 
integrated drug discovery collaboration" and added that "Sygnature has built an 
FBDD platform which combines proprietary fragment collections with 
high-throughput biophysical screening technologies to rapidly identify and 
characterize fragment hits. We look forward to applying this technology along 
with our specialist in silico-based virtual high-throughput screening (vHTS) 
techniques to identify high value hits and leads and accelerate the novel small 
molecule discovery process for Daewoong."

Park Joon-seok, head of Daewoong's drug discovery center commented that "We are 
actively pursuing open collaborations on various innovative platform 
technologies to boost global new drug discovery. We believe the collaboration 
with Sygnature Discovery will set a new milestone in expanding Daewoong 
Pharmaceutical's new drug pipeline."

[Clarification1] Fragment-Based Drug Discovery, FBDD

As the latest process of new drug development, it is a method of finding a lead 
substance using a fragment compound (molecular weight less than 200) A fragment 
compound with high binding ability to the target of a new drug is first 
selected, and the binding position of the fragment compound is confirmed 
through protein structure crystallography before the compound is constructed 
using medicinal chemistry and precursors can be found through structural 
chemistry to secure both patentability and novelty.

[Clarification2] Virtual Screening, VS

Virtual search is a computer-assisted technology used in discovering new drugs. 
Using a computer library containing information on the structure of various 
compounds, it is possible to identify substances that are most likely to bind 
to drug targets. It is a technology that can accelerate the development of new 
drugs by securing various predictive data on drug similarity, binding force, 
binding state, etc. for the possibility of millions of compounds in a short 
time as much as it utilizes computers.

[Clarification3] vHTS

Instead of many HTS evaluations performed to confirm the effectiveness of new 
drug candidates, it obtains efficacy prediction results for virtually hundreds 
of millions of compounds by introducing various calculation formulas and 
existing results for the effectiveness of compounds. As it is predictive 
technology, it is necessary to check the actual results, but it is being used 
to accelerate the development of new drugs by culling hundreds of millions of 
compounds to the level of 100 to 1000.

About Daewoong Pharmaceutical. Co., Ltd. 

Established in 1945, Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a leading South 
Korean pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, and commercializes 
pharmaceuticals for both domestic and international markets. With a strong and 
innovative in-house R&D and advanced manufacturing facilities, Daewoong 
provides a total healthcare solution to customers across the globe. Continuing 
on their course of building a strong global healthcare company, Daewoong has 
broadened international operations by establishing branch offices and research 
centers throughout Asia and the United States. Daewoong has also expanded 
strategic partnerships in more than 100 countries worldwide.

In 2022, Daewoong expanded its global market presence by entering into a 
license agreement worth USD 923 million, which granted permission for the use 
of 'Fexuclue', a medicine licensed for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux 
disease, in the Philippines and Ecuador within the first year of its launch. 
Additionally, Daewoong successfully launched 'Envlo', the first-ever sodium 
glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor for the treatment of diabetes to be 
developed in Korea, and signed an export contract worth USD 84.36 million with 
Brazil and Mexico. For further information on Daewoong Pharmaceutical, please 
visit our official website(https://www.daewoong.co.kr/en/main/index).

About Sygnature Discovery:

Sygnature Discovery is a world-leading integrated drug discovery partner, 
offering expertise across a broad range of therapeutic areas and biological 
target classes. Based in Nottingham and with facilities in Alderley Park, 
Tytherington and Glasgow, employing close to 700 people.

For more information, visit: www.sygnaturediscovery.com.

SOUECE: Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.