Biotech company G+FLAS Life Sciences, Inc. has been selected as a preliminary unicorn company eligible for special guarantee support by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The special guarantee for preliminary unicorns can be applied for by companies with proven innovation, growth potential, and market evaluation, or companies with a corporate value of 100 billion won or more and with high grades in technology evaluation.

G+FLAS was one of the 15 finalists selected through a national recommendation system participated by the general public, after two months of screening by the ministry.

The only biotech company among the 15, the firm received positive reviews from the expert panel for its high-level technology for “CRISPR genome editing,” as well as the marketability and growth potential of its plant-derived biopharmaceuticals.CRISPR stands for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.” CRISPR gene editing technology uses RNA-guided endonucleases to precisely locate and cut target nucleic acid sequences.

The company’s cutting-edge developments pivot on a CRISPR anticancer drug platform based on its 3.5-generation genetic editing technology CRISPR-PLUS. They also include anticancer drugs and COVID-19 treatments based on its plant-derived biopharmaceutical platform that uses “humanized” host plants -- plants that emulate some aspects of human biology.

The firm this year acquired patents for the CRISPR-PLUS, an upgrade to CRISPR protein, and Cas12a, a new type of CRISPR protein.

The attainments have helped solidify the company’s foundation for intellectual properties, it said, to grow as a global biotech business.

It has been certified as an intellectual property management company by the Korea Intellectual Property Office. It also received a certification for green technology that meets the government-led green biotech industry program.

“It is an honor to be selected as a preliminary unicorn company in recognition of the company‘s sustainable growth potential,” said G+FLAS CEO Choe Sung-hwa. “Based on the special guarantee support, the company will continue to develop the company’s first global biotech drug. I will continue to do so, and I will work harder to derive specific results.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)