Celltrion, LISCure Biosciences to develop microbiome therapy for Parkinson's disease

Celltrion announced on Friday that the company has signed a joint research and development contract with LISCure Biosciences for a microbiome-based Parkinson's disease treatment.

LISCure Biosciences is a Pangyo-based biotech company that conducts research for microbiome-based treatment for Parkinson's disease. The biotech currently has an oral microbiome drug development pipeline for Parkinson's disease, called LB-P4.

Under the contract, the two companies aim to co-develop live bio-therapeutic products, or LBPs, for Parkinson's disease, Celltrion said. LBPs are biological medicinal products which consist of microorganisms.

Celltrion will provide LISCure Biosciences with research funds, while LISCure Biosciences will be responsible for the initial development stage. Celltrion will also be in charge of clinical trials and regulatory approvals.

The latest partnership comes as Celltrion aims to expand its pipeline with microbiome-based treatments, which can address a wide range of unmet medical needs. Celltrion is also looking into opportunities to add new drug pipelines for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

According to GlobalData, a market research company, the global market for Parkinson's disease treatment is expected to post an annual growth rate of 12.6 percent to expand to $11.5 billion in 2029, from $3.5 billion in 2019.

"We will continue to seek open innovation opportunities with biotech companies with technological capabilities and do our best to discover new drug development pipelines,” Celltrion said.