"We will achieve global technology transfer next year with the world's first technology that resolves side effects of Alzheimer's treatments."
Park Sang-hoon, CEO of Ilimis Therapeutics, made this announcement in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily on the 2nd, stating that "our goal is to develop a standard Alzheimer's treatment within the next five years."
Ilimis drew industry attention last year by securing 58 billion won in Series B funding despite the biotech investment freeze. Cumulative investment has reached 94.2 billion won. This is an exceptional achievement for a five-year-old venture with no clinical-stage pipeline or technology transfer track record. Park attributed the investment success to "verified research data published in prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine and proven commercial viability through collaboration with global pharmaceutical companies."
Ilimis's core technology is the 'GAIA' platform, which removes dementia-causing proteins without triggering inflammation. "Existing Alzheimer's treatments cause inflammation while removing amyloid beta, leading to side effects such as brain edema and microhemorrhage," Park explained. "The GAIA platform simultaneously achieves toxic protein removal and immune modulation in a single drug, minimizing inflammation." The strategy reduces side effects by clearing toxic proteins while restoring brain immune cell function. It applies the targeted-immunotherapy combination approach, proven effective in oncology, to brain diseases.
As a platform technology, scalability is substantial. "We will expand beyond neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and ALS to autoimmune conditions including inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis," Park emphasized.
Dementia drug candidate 'ILM01' also features a differentiated mechanism. It suppresses inflammation by utilizing TAM receptors instead of conventional Fc receptors. Ilimis is the world's first company to pursue drug development using TAM receptors. "Our goal is IND approval for Phase 1 clinical trials in the first half of next year," Park said.
Big pharma recognized Ilimis's technology first. The company is conducting joint Alzheimer's research with Eli Lilly—a first for a Korean company—and has established a permanent collaboration system at Lilly Gateway Labs in Boston. "As a latecomer in the dementia treatment market, Lilly has strong interest in resolving side effects to strengthen competitiveness of its treatment 'Kisunla,'" Park noted. "Joint research results will come out at the end of this year." Depending on outcomes, opportunities may expand beyond follow-on investment to include collaboration on brain disease targets beyond Alzheimer's and drug delivery.
Ilimis targets an IPO in 2028. With listing requirements becoming more stringent, the company is accelerating commercialization efforts. "We will achieve both clinical entry and global technology transfer next year," Park said confidently. "As a platform company, we can combine various antibodies, enabling us to continuously pursue early-stage technology transfers."
