- The number of patent applications related to gene carriers increases –


Virus can cure people. Reviving the penetration ability within cells and removing toxins like immunogenicity can purify viruses to be used in gene therapy.

Gene therapy is an individualized state-of-the-art medical technology that replaces a patient’s sick gene with a healthy one, or a new function is added to the gene to cure diseases.

A gene carrier takes the role of accurately delivering the healthy gene to the target cell. Along with finding the gene causing sickness, gene carrier is the core technology of gene therapy. Viral gene carriers are known to be most effective in delivering genes to stem cells and organic tissues.

In the late 1990s, the safety of viral gene carriers was questioned, and clinical tests related to gene therapy were suspended. Recently, new efforts are being made to increase the safety of viral gene carriers, as well as to develop a new non-viral carrier.

According to KIPO, the total number of patent applications related to gene therapy was 694 during the past 15 years (1991~2005). In the initial 5 years from 1991 to 1995, the number was 19, only 3% of the overall applications. In the recent 5 years after 2001, the number increased 20 times, reaching 405 applications (58%). Such drastic increase shows today’s active development of technologies related to gene therapy. (See Attachment 1)

Looking at each field of technology, most of the applications (33%) were related to viral/non-viral gene carriers reinforced with safety/delivery efficiency. 186 applications (27%) were related to remixed carriers with genes to cure diseases. 155 applications (22%) were related to genes causing certain diseases, and 116 (17%) were related to medicines used in gene therapy. (See Attachment 2)

80% of all applications related to gene therapy were filed by foreigners, including multinational pharmaceutical companies. Though this ratio is very high compared to domestic applications, Korean Bio-Venture companies such as Viromed, Forhuman Tech have been increasingly filing related applications during the past 5 years. Applications filed by government-run research labs are also increasing. (See Attachment 1)
Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, biotechnology has advanced drastically. Genes causing certain diseases have been identified,
and clinical tests on medicines used in gene therapy are actively being made to overcome these diseases. (See Attachment 3)
In 2010, the global market size of medicines used in gene therapy is expected to exceed KRW 10 trillion (USD 10.4 billion). In the near future, we will enjoy an individualized gene therapy where healthy genes can be placed in cancerous cells without any dangerous side effects. (See Attachment 4)