GC Pharma and affiliate GC LabCell said Thursday they have jointly established a cell therapy development company called Artiva Biotherapeutics.

Artiva Biotherapeutics was launched in March in San Diego, the US, with GC Pharma and GC LabCell holding 56.67 percent and 37.77 percent stakes, respectively.

“This research and development body is to globalize the cell treatment being developed centering on GC LabCell,” a representative from GC Pharma said.




Artiva Biotherapeutics will focus on research and development and commercialization of anti-cancer drugs based on the natural killer cell, a type of immune cell in the human body.

Artiva’s founding President and CEO Tom Farrell has 20 years of experience as a biotech entrepreneur. He is the former president and CEO of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, a bio startup focused on the development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell treatments -- a breakthrough technology in which immune cells are engineered to fight cancer cells.

Hwang You-kyung, executive director at GC Pharma, and Son Min-su, director at GC LabCell, are board members at Artiva.

Meanwhile, on the same day, GC Medical Science announced a $9.8 million deal with Chinese company Horron, to supply the latter with Greencare Lipid.

Greencare Lipid is a medical device that allows the analysis of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein and triglyceride 2 1/2 minutes from blood sample collection.

GC Medical Science will provide Horron with the Greencare Lipid technology for the next four years. Horron will assemble the device locally in China.

Horron is an 18-year-old in-vitro diagnosis kit and diagnostic agent developer that operates across China. The company posts an annual average growth rate of over 50 percent.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)