Cyclica and SK Chemicals announce agreement to co-develop novel therapeutics

TORONTO and SEONGNAM-SI, South Korea, Dec. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -  Cyclica Inc. ("Cyclica"), a neo-biotech that is unlocking the protein universe to discover the medicines of tomorrow, and SK Chemicals Co., Ltd. ("SK Chemicals"), a global leader in total healthcare providing diagnostic, therapeutic and prophylactic solutions, today announced an AI-driven drug discovery and development partnership to develop therapies across a range of disease areas.

Under the collaboration with SK Chemicals, Cyclica will deploy its robust, proprietary drug discovery platforms to identify novel drug candidates for challenging biological targets across therapeutic areas of mutual interest to Cyclica and SK Chemicals. SK Chemicals will be responsible for the preclinical and clinical development and worldwide commercialization of these pharmaceuticals.

"This partnership is a tremendous opportunity to create innovative drug therapies across a number of therapeutic areas. Having Cyclica and SK Chemicals join forces will provide both companies with a competitive advantage, allowing for major advances in understanding disease mechanisms and the potential development of new therapeutics for patients'', said Naheed Kurji, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Cyclica.

"We believe Cyclica's technology will help SK Chemicals to develop novel therapeutic candidates against difficult biological targets with little information available. We seek to create synergy arising by combining SK Chemicals' organizational excellence and development experience with Cyclica's expertise and know-how," said Yun Ho Kim, Head of the Pharma Business Division at SK Chemicals.

 "We are thrilled to collaborate with SK Chemicals. This partnership will leverage our respective strengths in creating new therapeutics for patients and while promoting human health," added Dr. Vern De Biasi, PhD, Chief Partnership Officer at Cyclica.

As a neo-biotech, Cyclica is efficiently advancing an industry-leading, robust and sustainable drug discovery portfolio focused on CNS, oncology, and auto-immune diseases. Cyclica has built the only generalizable platform across the entire proteome, expanding the target space for low-data targets, including AlphaFold2 structures, PPIs, and mutant oncogenic targets. Cyclica has brought together a diverse and experienced team of biologists, chemists, computer scientists, and business professionals who are collectively passionate about changing the drug discovery paradigm. By exploring the unexplored, and drugging the undrugged, Cyclica strives to impact patient health like never before. For more information about our company, please visit: cyclicarx.com.

SK Chemicals is a leading company in the fields of chemistry and life science. Since the establishment of Sunkyung Textiles in 1969, SK chemicals has grown through continuous change and innovation into a chemical and life sciences enterprise representing South Korea. SK Chemicals' life sciences business is dominated by pharmaceuticals and biologics and is aimed at providing comprehensive healthcare solutions that cover patient care from diagnosis to treatment and prevention. The company established a competitive product portfolio in the pharmaceutical field with the consecutive launches of MVIX®, an erectile dysfunction treatment, and MVIX S®, a film-type erectile dysfunction treatment. In addition to its first new natural medicine Joins SK Chemicals boasts a diverse line of medicines including the arthritis treatment patch, Trast® and blood circulation improvement agent, Ginexin®. Learn more at https://www.skchemicals.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information which include, among other things, plans to advance one or more drug discovery programs by Cyclica and SK Chemicals. Such statements and information are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management, and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and information. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement and forward-looking information contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this press release will prove to be accurate.

SOURCE Cyclica Inc.