[Edaily Reporter Shin Ha-yeon ] Pharos iBio Co., Ltd.(388870)announced on the 24th that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Advanced Medical Industry Promotion Foundation (K-MediHub) to conduct joint research on AI-based new drug development.

Under this agreement, the two parties will combine Pharos iBio Co., Ltd.’s AI-based drug design technology with K-MediHub’s structural biology research capabilities to develop next-generation EGFR-targeted anticancer drugs. They plan to jointly conduct research on protein structure elucidation and structure-based drug design (SBDD), and establish a research and development system that integrates AI-based candidate compound design with structural validation.

Pharos iBio Co., Ltd. will be responsible for candidate compound design using its proprietary AI-based drug discovery platform, “Chemiverse,” while K-MediHub will support protein structure analysis and candidate compound validation by leveraging its structural biology research infrastructure.

The company explained that this MOU is particularly significant as it represents a model of industry-academia collaboration between an AI-driven drug discovery company and a national research infrastructure. It is expected to serve as a model for enhancing the competitiveness of Korea’s AI-driven drug discovery ecosystem by integrating structural biology research into AI-based candidate compound design, going beyond mere analytical support.

Pharos iBio Co., Ltd. plans to apply the research outcomes secured through this collaboration to the development of its EGFR anticancer pipeline—including the next-generation EGFR-targeted anticancer drug “PHI-701”—to accelerate the development of new drugs that overcome resistance to existing treatments.

Park Gu-seon, Chairman of K-MediHub, stated: stated, “The Daegu-Gyeongbuk Advanced Medical Industry Promotion Foundation is a public institution that supports domestic industry-academia-research-hospital collaboration to develop South Korea into one of the world’s top five bio-powerhouses, and it possesses the organizational structure and infrastructure to efficiently assist with AI-driven new drug development in particular.” He added, “By partnering with Pharos iBio Co., Ltd., which owns a proprietary AI platform, we will support rapid structural elucidation and validation to help them swiftly complete the development of innovative new drugs.”

Yoon Jeong-hyeok, CEO of Pharos iBio Co., Ltd., said, “Pharos iBio Co., Ltd. has continuously strengthened its internal research capabilities to conduct in-house new drug development by establishing an AI-based new drug development platform and securing a diverse pipeline of new drugs,” and “2026 marks the first year of ‘Pharos iBio Co., Ltd. 2.0.’ Building on our accumulated internal capabilities, we will expand collaboration with external specialized institutions and simultaneously enhance both our R&D outcomes and commercialization potential,” he said.