South Korea's OliX teams up with AI drug design group Galux on next-generation siRNA therapies
OliX Pharmaceuticals, the Seoul-listed RNA interference specialist, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Galux, a South Korean artificial-intelligence drug discovery firm, to co-develop a new class of siRNA delivery platform — the latest tie-up between Korean biotech and AI design players as the industry races to broaden the reach of gene-silencing medicines beyond the liver.
Under the agreement, Galux will pair its GaluxDesign protein engineering platform with OliX's proprietary OASIS siRNA technology, with the aim of enabling more precise delivery of siRNA therapeutics and supporting joint research and eventual commercialisation. The companies said they planned to expand their collaboration into shared business opportunities over time.
The deal comes as the siRNA therapeutics field shifts away from a long-standing focus on hepatic targets, where the first generation of approved drugs has been concentrated, towards extrahepatic tissues that have historically been harder to reach. OliX is pursuing that shift under what it calls its "OliX 2.0" strategy, which involves broadening its tissue applications and striking delivery-focused partnerships, including collaborations with companies developing blood-brain barrier shuttle technologies for central nervous system targets.
Galux, for its part, designs optimised proteins for specific disease targets from scratch using AI, weighing multiple therapeutic properties to identify candidates with stronger developability profiles. The company has recently been validating its technology through tie-ups with domestic and international pharmaceutical groups, and claims strong performance in identifying novel antibodies with high binding affinity and specificity.
Lee Dong-ki, chief executive of OliX, said the collaboration was an opportunity to "combine both companies' strengths", with the goal of advancing "next-generation delivery technologies". Seok Cha-ok, chief executive of Galux, said that as AI-driven drug development matured, "combining different technological advantages is as important as individual innovation".
The partnership is the latest in a series of deals OliX has pursued to secure delivery capabilities, a recognised bottleneck for the siRNA sector, where well-designed therapeutic payloads have often struggled to reach tissues beyond the liver. A resolution of that challenge would materially expand the addressable market for RNA-based medicines, particularly in oncology, neurology and rare diseases — areas where global pharma has been hunting for differentiated modalities.