Samsung's Life Science Fund invests in Seattle's Latus Bio

Samsung's Life Science Fund has invested in Seattle's Latus Bio as a new foray into the gene therapy market.

Samsung Bioepis researchers conduct tests at a lab in Incheon. [SAMSUNG BIOEPIS]

Samsung's Life Science Fund, created jointly by Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis and Samsung C&T, has invested in Seattle-based Latus Bio in its latest move to enter the promising gene therapy market.

The details of the investment, the fund's sixth, have not been disclosed.

Latus is currently developing gene therapy candidates for the central nervous system.

According to Latus' news release, “AAV-mediated gene therapy has long held promise for the treatment of genetically-defined CNS disorders; but, until now, it has been limited by its inability to transduce specific CNS substructures and cell types with requisite specificity. These limitations have led to the reliance on high-dose injections that cause off-target toxicity and difficulties in scalable manufacturing.”

“Latus’s proprietary technologies aim to directly address these challenges by enabling massively paralleled and unbiased screening of novel AAV capsids directly in nonhuman primates,” the company says.

Samsung is speeding up its investment in bio startups. The fund, in 2022, invested in Jaguar Gene Therapy, an Illinois-based biotech company specializing in gene therapy development.

The Life Science Fund was created in 2021 with infusions of 99 billion won ($74.4 million) from Samsung C&T and 49.5 billion won from Samsung Biologics. Samsung Bioepis contributed 20 billion won last year.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]