GC Pharma (formerly known as Green Cross Corporation), a South Korean bio pharmaceutical company, announced the establishment of Curevo Inc. (Curevo). The newly established Seattle-based company's goal is to support GC Pharma's vaccine development activities.

GC Pharma builds a strategic collaboration and partnership with global health organisations IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) and MIBR (Mogam Institute for Biomedical Research) to form the new company.

Curevo represents an important next step in GC Pharma's vaccine business. The new company will bring together GC Pharma's commercial scale vaccine development expertise and deep understanding of protein science with IDRI and MIBR's world class scientific expertise in vaccine, adjuvant and formulation development. Initial work will centre on advancing an innovative vaccine candidate against shingles to clinical stage.

"Establishing Curevo signals a crucial step forward in GC Pharma's long-standing dedication to prevent potentially serious diseases," said EC Huh, Ph. D. president of GC Pharma. "This exciting collaboration will increase the possibilities for immune-compromised populations to have better options."

"The bottom line is that this new collaboration will take advantage of the combined strength of these three organisations to more rapidly develop infectious disease vaccines and bring them to market," said Steve Reed, Ph. D., IDRI's President, CEO and Founder.

"MIBR scientists have been focusing on discovering novel cancer therapeutics and vaccines. Curevo creates an excellent conduit to achieve those goals by joining forces with GC Pharma and IDRI," said Senyon Teddy Choe, Ph. D., MIBR's President and Director.

Corey Casper, M. D., M. P. H. IDRI's Chief Medical Officer will lead the shingles project of the new company. Dr. Casper has more than 20 years of experience in designing, growing and sustaining internationally recognized programs in infection-related cancer, HIV, infection control and global oncology. He also has extensive experience leading multi-phased international clinical trials.

GC Pharma (formerly known as Green Cross Corporation) is a biopharmaceutical company that delivers life-saving and life-sustaining protein therapeutics and vaccines.

As a non-profit global health organisation, IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) takes a comprehensive approach to combat infectious diseases, combining the high-quality science of a research organisation with the product development capabilities of a biotech company to create new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.