Koo Bo-sung, CEO of MBDI, made these remarks during a recent meeting with E-Daily at the company’s headquarters located within the Seoul National University Next-Generation Convergence Technology Institute in Gwanggyo, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
Cancer cells are isolated by pretreatment equipment, and after a microdispensing device distributes the cells and anticancer drugs into culture plates, a scanner reads the cell status and drug response. Although some processes still require manual intervention by researchers, MBD is currently developing a system that integrates all equipment and the robotic arm into a single system.
CEO Koo stated, “The most important aspect of bioassays is reproducibility through automation,” adding, “Consistent data must be produced under the same conditions and processes regardless of the researcher or operator, so that the results can be utilized for patient treatment and new drug development.”
MBD, which is pursuing a KOSDAQ listing this month, is a company that supports precision medicine and new drug development based on its 3D cell culture platform technology. Its core businesses include: △ “ASFA,” an automated 3D cell culture system; △ “OncoSensi,” an anticancer drug sensitivity testing service; △contract research organization (CRO) services for new drug development using patient-derived cells.
Last year, MBD met the requirements for a technology-based listing exemption after receiving an ‘A’ rating from one specialized evaluation agency and a ‘BBB’ rating from another in a technology evaluation. In July of this year, it received approval from the Korea Exchange for its preliminary KOSDAQ listing review. Amid assessments that the bar for technology-based listing exemptions has risen, the company is credited with having its business structure—which involves developing automation equipment and expanding it into testing services and CRO operations—recognized.
“Reducing Variability in Manual Work Is the Starting Point for Automation”MBD’s focus
on automationstems from its assessment that bio-experiments rely heavily on
manual labor. The process of isolating cancer tissue obtained from patients, culturing the cells, and then testing their reactions to various anticancer drugs involves many steps. Since the amount of sample material is limited and cells and drugs must be handled uniformly, results can vary depending on the operator.
MBD has applied precision control technology—previously used in electronic component manufacturing—to this process. The founding team, including CEO Koo, consists of engineers with experience in developing biomedical devices at Samsung Electro-Mechanics. They applied technology for rapidly dispensing and controlling precise, consistent volumes of minute amounts of liquid to the microdispensing of cells and drugs.
ASFA is a suite of equipment used throughout the cell culture process, from the pretreatment of patient-derived tissue to the microdispensing of cells and drugs, 3D culture, and image acquisition and analysis. The company supplies the “ASFA Spotter” for dispensing cells and drugs, the “ASFA Scanner” for analyzing culture results, as well as consumables such as dedicated culture plates and tips, and analysis software.
The primary role of automated equipment is to ensure consistency rather than simply reducing experiment time. MBD cultivates patient-derived cancer cells in 3D and then analyzes their response to anticancer drugs. Since it physically takes time for cells to grow and react to drugs, test results are typically provided within 10 to 14 days.
CEO Koo stated, “We cannot artificially shorten the time it takes to grow cells and induce a drug response,” adding, “Instead, the role of automation is to reduce variations that can occur depending on the person during the pretreatment, dispensing, and analysis processes.”
The company views the data accumulated on its automation platform as a key asset for the future. It plans to combine patient clinical information, drug response data, and genomic information gathered from the same culture platform to refine its artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictive algorithms.
CEO Koo said, “We are not merely storing the results of administering drugs to patients’ cancer cells; we are also accumulating the patients’ clinical information and subsequent progress in our database,” adding, “The more consistent data we generate from the platform, the greater our ability to predict treatment responses will become.”
OncoSense Expands Cancer Types… “To Be Offered at 55 Hospitals”OncoSensi, a precision medicine service, is at the forefront of MBDI’s commercialization efforts. The service helps medical professionals develop treatment strategies by culturing cancer cells obtained from a patient’s tumor tissue or bodily fluids in a 3D environment and analyzing their response to various anticancer drugs. Rather than relying solely on genomic information to assess cancer cells, the method involves administering drugs to actual cancer cells to verify their response.
Currently, OncoSensi is commercially available for lung, ovarian, gastric, and colorectal cancers. Testing is conducted by the Green Cross Medical Foundation’s testing laboratory, while MBD provides the automated equipment, analytical technology, and data infrastructure.
The company plans to expand both the range of supported cancer types and the network of referring medical institutions. It intends to launch tests for bile duct cancer and endometrial cancer by the end of this year, and to broaden the scope to include pancreatic, prostate, and kidney cancers early next year.
CEO Koo stated, “To expand the range of cancer types, we must accumulate and validate sufficient clinical data for each specific cancer type,” adding, “Rather than expanding all at once, we are proceeding by sequentially launching services starting with cancer types that have already been validated.”
Currently, there are approximately 45 hospitals in South Korea referring patients for the OncoSensi test. MBD aims to increase this number to between 50 and 55 by the end of the year. The company believes that expanding its sales network is necessary, as it takes time to finalize contracts with hospitals, implement the test in clinical settings, and establish a stable testing process.
Following the IPO, the company plans to enhance the sophistication of its automated equipment while strengthening its business structure, which spans equipment, consumables, testing, and CRO services. MBD is offering 2 million new shares. The target price range is 9,400–11,700 won, and the public offering will take place in [month]. Hana Securities is the lead underwriter.
The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to expand production infrastructure, fund research and development, secure personnel, and strengthen sales and marketing. CEO Koo stated, “While clinical trials and R&D are necessary to expand the range of cancer types covered, it is also important to promote our existing technologies to medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies to translate them into actual sales,” adding, “We will strengthen marketing and sales to increase demand for testing services and CRO services.”
The medium- to long-term goal is to have the testing services covered by health insurance. The company plans to first explore coverage under private insurance and, based on the clinical evidence accumulated across various cancer types, lay the groundwork for inclusion in the national health insurance reimbursement program.
CEO Koo said, “Based on the reproducible data generated by our automated equipment, we will grow into a platform company that supports both patient-tailored treatments and pharmaceutical companies’ new drug development.”
