Galux, an artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company, said Tuesday that a bispecific antibody immuno-oncology drug designed with its AI protein design platform "GalaxDesign" has been selected as a new candidate-stage support project under the National New Drug Development Program, organized by the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF).
The project aims to develop next-generation immuno-oncology drug candidates for cancer patients who do not respond sufficiently to existing immunotherapies or who have developed resistance. The development target is PD-1/IL-18v, a bispecific antibody candidate combining an AI-designed interleukin (IL)-18 variant with a PD-1 antibody. Through this project, the company plans to advance the AI-based bispecific antibody candidate to the preclinical validation stage and assess its potential as an actual drug development asset.
IL-18 is a promising cytokine capable of inducing a strong anti-cancer immune response, but its development as a therapeutic has been limited due to concerns over in-body suppression and systemic toxicity. Galux used its proprietary AI protein design technology to redesign the structure and function of IL-18, addressing these limitations and designing a variant that can selectively induce an immune response in the tumor microenvironment. This variant is based on the AI-designed bispecific antibody immuno-oncology research findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2026.
The National New Drug Development Program is a cross-ministerial national R&D project launched to strengthen the global competitiveness of Korea's pharmaceutical and bio industries. From 2021 over a 10-year period, it supports all stages of the drug development cycle with the goals of strengthening the domestic new drug R&D ecosystem, creating global commercialization results, and generating public-interest outcomes in the healthcare sector.
"The significance of this selection is that an innovative new drug candidate designed by AI has been evaluated by new drug development experts and received national support for candidate-stage development," said Galux CEO Suk Cha-ok. "This is an important case demonstrating that AI can go beyond simply proposing candidates to actually creating genuine innovative new drug assets."
He added, "Galux will continue to use its AI drug discovery platform to discover innovative new drug candidates that can lead to patient treatment. Through this project, we will fully advance the preclinical validation of the AI-designed IL-18 variant-based bispecific antibody candidate and develop it into a next-generation immuno-oncology drug."
Meanwhile, Galux participated in BIO USA on Sunday and signed a joint research partnership with global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The two companies plan to develop new protein-based drugs targeting hard-to-treat targets.
