Pioneering Korea's ARPA-H Project: Focused on mRNA Vaccine Room-Temperature Storage and Extra-Long-Term Preservation Creating a Platform for Prolonged Room-Temperature Storage and Efficient Distribution of mRNA Vaccines SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 30, a Korean Biotech company, DX&VX(www.dxvx.com; KOSDAQ 180400, Majority shareholder Lim Chong-yoon) announced its selection as a co-research institution for Korea's first ARPA-H project, titled "STOREx: Stockpile Technology to Omit Repeated Entity for Vx." This groundbreaking initiative aims to establish materials and production processes to enable room-temperature, ultra-long-term storage of mRNA vaccines. DX&VX will lead the verification of genomic integrity of the mRNA vaccine technology, a crucial step toward commercialization.

Modeled after the U.S. ARPA-H initiative, the Korean ARPA-H project is managed by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) and seeks to resolve major healthcare challenges through innovation. This specific project centers on advancing technology for the extra-long-term, room-temperature preservation of mRNA vaccines, thereby enhancing national health security and bolstering rapid pandemic response capabilities.

Led by Professor Seung-Soo Oh from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), the project includes a consortium of institutions: DX&VX, Korea University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Ewha Womans University, and Seoul Asan Medical Center. DX&VX will play a pivotal role in both technology validation and subsequent commercialization of this critical vaccine storage solution.

This project has secured a significant research fund of 8.5 billion KRW over five years, with an allocation breakdown of 1.5 billion KRW for the initial phase, 5 billion KRW for the second phase, and 2 billion KRW for the final phase.

Having previously collaborated with POSTECH on mRNA vaccine advancements, including lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology, DX&VX will now concentrate on enabling room-temperature storage and extra-long-term preservation for mRNA vaccines. Given that current mRNA vaccines require ultra-cold storage and have limited shelf lives, these advancements are expected to ease distribution challenges, reduce costs, and foster a self-reliant national healthcare system, thus ensuring vaccine sovereignty in the face of future health crises.

"We will play a pivotal role in this project based on our expertise accumulated in the field of precision medicine, such as genomic integrity analysis technology", said Kevin Kwon, CEO of DX&VX. "The development of mRNA vaccine's room temperature extra-long-term preservation technology and mass production process technology is the best innovative technology that can change the game itself in the existing mRNA vaccine market. We will actively commercialize this technology to lead the development of domestic vaccines and grow it into a standard for the global mRNA vaccine platform."