LG AI Research Announces Collaboration with D&D Pharmatech to accelerate next-generation oral peptide drug discovery

- LG to secure leadership in the AI-bio market with its distinctive technological edge.

SEOUL, South Korea, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LG AI Research announced today that it has signed a master agreement for a joint next-generation oral peptide drug development project with D&D Pharmatech at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul.

The signing ceremony was attended by key executives from both companies, including Woohyung Lim (Head of LG AI Research), Hwayoung Lee (Head of AI Business Transformation Unit), and Jongseong Jang (Leader of Bio Intelligence Lab) from LG AI Research, alongside Seulki Lee (CEO), Sunghoon Hong (CFO) from D&D Pharmatech.

"This collaboration goes beyond the simple adoption of technology; it represents a journey toward creating a bio-specialized AI that addresses complex challenges in drug discovery," said Woohyung Lim, Head of LG AI Research. "Through continuous advancements in our protein engineering models, we are actively accelerating the development and optimizing the design of next-generation peptide therapeutics."

Seulki Lee, CEO of D&D Pharmatech, stated, "By combining LG AI Research's cutting-edge technologies and data-driven learning expertise with D&D Pharmatech's extensive experience in peptide development, we will radically enhance the efficiency of drug discovery. In particular, we aim to validate our technical leadership in the global market within highly sought-after fields such as oral peptides, including macrocyclic peptides."

Peptides are short chains of biologically active amino acids that make up proteins, playing a critical role in precisely regulating physiological functions such as growth and recovery in the human body. While peptides offer high safety profiles by selectively targeting disease-causing agents inside cells—areas difficult for conventional antibody drugs to reach—they have traditionally been developed primarily as injectables due to their vulnerability to decomposition by gastrointestinal digestive enzymes.

The two companies plan to jointly develop an oral tablet-form treatment for incurable diseases and precision medicine by utilizing AI technology to drastically improve safety and absorption rates. Furthermore, they expect to significantly reduce drug development timelines and costs through AI-driven molecular design technology while improving the clinical success rate of peptide drugs.

• LG AI Research Designs Drug Candidates, While D&D Pharmatech Drives Validation and Clinical Development

The partnership combines LG AI Research's AI-driven drug discovery capabilities with D&D Pharmatech's expertise in peptide development to create next-generation peptide drugs.

LG AI Research will be responsible for developing models that discover and design peptide drug candidates. Utilizing models that analyze the structures of disease-causing substances, LG AI Research will design and validate optimal peptide sequences at unprecedented scale overcoming limitations of conventional discovery methods.

D&D Pharmatech will handle the structural design, synthesis, and evaluation of the candidates generated by LG AI Research. For viable drug candidates, D&D Pharmatech will apply its proprietary formulation technologies to enable oral administration, while managing preclinical and clinical development as well as global regulatory approval processes.

Notably, the two companies plan to establish a continuous feedback loop: LG AI Research will provide AI-designed candidates, and D&D Pharmatech will validate them, feeding the results back into the system to optimize the model's performance.

• LG Diversifies 'Biology AI' Portfolio: Innovating from Drug Discovery to Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Recommendations

LG AI Research has been steadily developing innovative "Biology AI" models to treat various diseases through the convergence of AI and biotechnology.

A prime example is "Cancer Agentic AI," a personalized precision medicine AI platform being developed in collaboration with Professor Tae Hyun Hwang of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Cancer Agentic AI is an end-to-end oncology support platform where AI autonomously analyzes everything from cancer tissue samples to optimal treatment strategies to aid medical professionals in their decision-making.

When deployed at hospitals, the platform can shorten biopsy analysis—a process that previously took more than two weeks—to real-time, enabling rapid treatment. In the pharmaceutical sector, it can drastically reduce both the cost and duration of clinical trials.

In addition, LG AI Research has registered patents for "EXAONE Discovery," an AI-driven platform for drug and advanced material development, and is actively utilizing it in research. Incorporating an "AI Co-Scientist" system that communicates with researchers like a colleague to design experiments and predict outcomes, EXAONE Discovery can discover promising candidate substances at a speed tens of times faster than traditional methods.

With Kwang Mo Koo, Chairman and CEO of LG Corp. highlighting AI and bio as key future technologies to transform the customer experience, LG is delivering significant results at the intersection of AI and bio-tech driven by open innovation.

LG AI Research

Established in December 2020, LG AI Research serves as the AI think tank for the LG Group. Its mission is to enhance AI capabilities by addressing business challenges, conducting cutting-edge AI research, and establishing and implementing ethical principles for AI technology. Leveraging EXAONE (Expert AI for Everyone), a proprietary large-scale AI model developed since 2021, the center has been driving innovation across various industries.

Furthermore, by securing first place overall and successfully passing the technological independence evaluation in the 'National AI Foundation Model Project'—an initiative launched to resolve dependency on global models—LG AI Research has firmly solidified its position as Korea's flagship AI company.

-Official Website: https://www.lgresearch.ai/ 

D&D Pharmatech

D&D Pharmatech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing revolutionary medicines for patients with metabolic, fibrotic, and neurodegenerative diseases.

ORALINK, the company's proprietary platform, is designed to enable the oral administration of peptide therapeutics. ORALINK has demonstrated superior oral bioavailability compared with existing technologies in preclinical models, and oral peptide programs leveraging the platform, including lead oral GLP-1 receptor agonist assets, have advanced into clinical-stage development led by its global partner. Building on ORALINK's versatile capabilities, D&D Pharmatech continues to explore the platform's broader potential beyond GLP-1 pathways.

-Official Website: https://www.ddpharmatech.com/

SOURCE LG