Hyundai Bioscience vows to license out Korea’s first antiviral

by유진희 기자
2025.05.19 09:02:22

[Yu Jin-hee, Edaily Reporter] SEOUL, South Korea-“I aim to help Hyundai Bioscience grow into a global innovative drug developer. My goals are to commercialize at least one antiviral targeting the global market and to license out our anticancer therapy. Through these efforts, I hope to help Korea’s bio industry take the lead in global competition,” said Hyundai Bioscience CEO Byung-Joon Bae in an interview with Edaily at the company’s Magok headquarters in Seoul on May 12.

Bae pledged tangible achievements in drug development and licensing deals as his first statement since taking office. While some may have doubted his ambitious goals, his decades-long career lends credibility. Bae is a seasoned policymaker and pharmaceutical expert who served in key government roles, including director of the pharmaceutical policy division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, head of the Seoul Regional Food and Drug Administration, senior secretary for health policy at the presidential office, director general of the Health Industry Policy Bureau, and head of the Community Care Promotion Headquarters.

After retiring from public service in January 2020, Bae spent nearly three years as head of the Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials (KoNECT), where he led the development of a public platform to accelerate clinical trials and supported domestic therapies and vaccines developed by 16 Korean companies. His exit from KoNECT drew interest from numerous biopharmaceutical firms-but he ultimately chose Hyundai Bioscience.

His decision was driven by the company’s earnest commitment to drug development, notably its heavy investment-including hundreds of billions of won of private capital-into a COVID-19 treatment based on its antiviral candidate “Zefty.” While many firms exited the race after public funds dried up, Hyundai Bioscience continued investing to see the drug through to commercialization.

“My goal is to translate my experience in policy, regulation, and global collaboration into concrete results in new drug development,” Bae said. “Hyundai Bioscience is a rare company that combines scientific innovation with a global vision, making it the ideal partner to generate real value.”

With Bae on board, the company’s pipelines are expected to gain momentum. Zefty’s main compound, niclosamide, has shown potential against over 30 viruses in preclinical studies. Key upcoming projects include commercializing a dengue fever treatment, licensing out “Fenitrium” for chemo-resistance in prostate cancer, and collaborating with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) on respiratory virus animal studies.

If successful, these programs could become major milestones for Korea’s biopharma industry and significantly increase Hyundai Bioscience’s market cap, currently around KRW 500 billion.

Hyundai Bioscience CEO Byung-Joon Bae. [Source=Hyundai Bioscience ]

“The most advanced pipeline is the dengue treatment based on Zefty,” Bae said. “We have finalized the development roadmap and plan to begin Phase 2/3 clinical trials in Vietnam later this year. Depending on the results, we may seek conditional approval to accelerate commercialization. If successful, Zefty could demonstrate its commercial value and potential as a broad-spectrum antiviral and solution for future pandemics.”



“According to WHO and IARC, over 90% of the 10 million global cancer deaths each year are due to metastasis,” Bae explained. “Modern medicine has often viewed metastatic cancer as untreatable, but we believe the key issue is ‘pseudo-resistance,’ where tumors block drug delivery at a structural level. Our anticancer strategy targets this barrier by altering the extracellular matrix (ECM) and enhancing immune cell infiltration. In preclinical studies, our chemo-resistance treatment significantly reduced tumor size when used in combination with conventional therapies. We recently presented these findings at AACR 2025 in Chicago, and they were well received. We believe global partnerships are possible.”

Hyundai Bioscience’s COVID-19 drug “CP-COV03,” based on Zefty, had its Phase 3 trial application rejected by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in April. “The rejection was a major disappointment,” Bae said. “The drug was developed for pandemic response, but regulatory standards tightened significantly after COVID-19 ended. There was a disagreement on the design of an adaptive Phase 2/3 trial. As seen in the U.S., governments need to invest boldly, and regulators must act as facilitators in emergencies. Zefty remains a competitive antiviral candidate, and we plan to complete clinical development by strategically linking it with government R&D programs for pandemic response and unmet medical needs.”

Hyundai Bioscience is also working closely with Hyundai ADM, a clinical research organization acquired last year. “We are co-developing new pipelines and optimizing drug delivery technologies, particularly in oncology and infectious diseases,” Bae said. “This collaboration boosts both development speed and the chances of commercial success.”

“During my 30 years in government, I witnessed the accelerating pace of pandemics,” Bae said. “It’s painful that Korea still lacks vaccine sovereignty. The next pandemic is inevitable. While the government is supporting mRNA vaccine and antiviral development, it’s time for companies to take the lead in securing pharmaceutical independence. I believe Hyundai Bioscience has the experience and capabilities to make that happen.”