10.10.23-Showcase-Seoul-Numb_Corp

ANDREW RADIN: [KOREAN]. Good afternoon. I'm Andrew Radin, Cofounder and CEO of Numb Corp., a biotech company developing therapeutics for pain management. 10 years ago, I earned my MBA at MIT Sloan, where I studied and practiced commercializing scientific innovations.

When I finished at MIT, I launched an AI-driven drug discovery company that was backed by leading American, Japanese, and Korean investors. We were part of the MIT Startup Exchange. And through that, we signed four partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies in Asia, including two here in South Korea.

Most recently, I partnered with two neuroscientists to launch Numb Corp. We're a biotechnology company that specializes in protein engineering for applications in neuroscience. We're developing a novel nonopioid drug for subacute regional pain management.

This is important for two reasons-- one, inadequate pain management solutions, and, two, the opioid crisis in the United States. According to the US National Institute of Health, there's 50 million US adults that suffer from inadequate pain management solutions. There are about 10 million Americans that misused opioids in the past year.

Currently, patients who suffer from pain have three options. They can go to the hospital and be treated in hospital. They can be prescribed opioids. Or they can suffer with debilitating pain. The question we face is, how can we manage pain safely?

When treating pain with opioids, we face several risks. Opioids act systemically, not regionally, in the body, leading to unwanted effects. Opioids lead to addiction and to dependence. And appropriate pain control requires patient adherence to the drug. We're developing a novel drug that is a nonopioid to address these issues.

We're engineering a first-in-class selective, Intracellular Neurotransmission Blocker, or INTB for short. Our drug will act by blocking the pain signal from the sensory neuron from going into the central nervous system so that the patient does not feel the regional pain.

Our drug will be delivered locally, not systemically, unlike opioids, will not be addictive or lead to dependence. And it will be administered by injection by a doctor and not rely on the patient adherence that opioids do.

Big pharma tried to do this in the past. But at the time, the data and the tools did not yet exist. And at the time, opioids seemed like a sufficient solution. Our specialty is protein engineering for applications in neuroscience. And we're leveraging discoveries in neural cell typing, advances in protein engineering, and nanomolar affinity binders to fill the gap in pain medication and fight the opioid crisis.

My founding team includes me, Andrew Radin, an experienced biotech entrepreneur; Lief Fenno, a neuroscience professor specializing in protein engineering, whose patents have been licensed by big pharma. He is also an addiction psychiatrist. And Tim Machado, a neuroscience professor who founded a company that was acquired by a top 10 global company.

Our team has discovered a way to selectively target sensory neurons. And using this approach, we are working to deliver a neurotransmission-blocking protein that works from inside the cell. We're engineering a novel protein that combines a well-characterized neurotransmission-blocking protein with a peptide that is selective for sensory neurons.

The result is a first-in-class, selective INTB. The interesting properties of this neurotransmission-blocking protein can only be shared under confidentiality. So if this approach is interesting to you, I encourage you to engage us further.

We're currently modeling our drug candidate in silico and will commence in vitro proof-of-concept studies shortly. Our target product profile is a protein biologic that will be delivered in a single injection-- single local injection that would last on the order of one to two weeks-- one of the special properties of this neurotransmission blocking protein-- and unlike opioids, will not lead to addiction or dependence.

In my previous company, we signed four partnerships with Asia-based biopharmaceutical companies-- again, two here in South Korea. I personally have made more than a dozen trips to the region over the past several years. And we look forward to connecting with biopharma companies today. Particularly, we're interested in connecting with biopharmaceutical companies that have an interest in pain management, more specifically in postsurgical, neuropathic, and cancer-related pain.

We'd like to leverage your deep scientific expertise as well as scientific resources, including in vitro sensory neuron assays, unique in vivo pain models, and any accelerator programs that enable us to further engage with your company. We appreciate the opportunity to be here today because it's at the intersection where established industrial leaders and innovative start-ups meet that we can really translate discoveries into impact. Together, let's create a better way to manage pain safely. Thank you. [KOREAN]