[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyung-il ] #Finemedix Co., Ltd., a gastrointestinal endoscopy solutions company, announced on the 27th that it has been selected as a joint research institution for the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “2026 Research-Oriented Hospital Korea-U.S. Innovation and Achievement R&D” project.

Accordingly, Finemedix Co., Ltd. will participate in a national Korea-U.S. joint R&D project led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to develop an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-based pancreatic cancer treatment device. The goal is to expand existing EUS technology—which has traditionally focused on diagnosis and biopsy—into the therapeutic domain.

This project is a global collaborative research initiative aimed at developing a next-generation pancreatic cancer treatment platform, with Seoul National University Bundang Hospital serving as the lead institution. Participants include Seoul National University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Konkuk University, as well as Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in the United States. The research will be conducted over approximately two years and six months, with a total R&D budget of 7 billion won.

In this project, Finemedix Co., Ltd. is responsible for developing an EUS device capable of delivering therapeutic agents directly into the pancreas. EUS is a technology that combines an endoscope with ultrasound equipment to visualize surrounding organs, such as the pancreas, and collect tissue samples via the stomach or duodenum.

Finemedix Co., Ltd. possesses the technology to handle everything from the design to the production of needles used in endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA), and plans to leverage this capability to develop a procedure device equipped with a therapeutic agent injection function.

In particular, the company will leverage the precision machining technology and development experience gained from its proprietary EUS device, “ClearTip.” While existing EUS devices have primarily been used for diagnosing pancreatic tumors or collecting tissue samples, this research aims to expand their application to therapeutic devices that deliver therapeutic agents by accessing lesions through the same approach.

The consortium is pursuing the development of a therapeutic platform that uses endoscopic ultrasound to access the interior of the pancreas, inject therapeutic agents, and deliver light-based stimulation via the same pathway to induce a therapeutic effect.

A representative of Finemedix Co., Ltd. stated, “Through this research, we plan to expand our capabilities in the design, development, and production of endoscopic instruments into the field of therapeutic endoscopy, and we also plan to pursue joint platform development, technology transfer, and global commercialization in the future.”