Firm announces development of room-temperature mRNA delivery system

SEOUL, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- South Korea's Cha Vaccine Institute said it has succeeded in developing an mRNA delivery system designed to work at room temperature.

The new system named Lipoplex is a liposome-based mRNA carrier, which can be freeze-dried, hence, not needing a separate cold chain, the institute said in its announcement Thursday.

Medicines and vaccines using mRNA gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic because they can be swiftly produced by identifying the genome of the target virus.

The catch is it required a sophisticated delivery vehicle, one that can transfer the mRNA to the target cells because enzymes have the effect of modifying or degrading the mRNA in the body.

Most companies had taken advantage of substances dubbed LNPs as carriers to deal with the novel coronavirus. But this method requires extremely low temperatures for distribution.

Unable to establish and manage end-to-end cold chain logistics, less developed countries struggled to ensure population-wide vaccination programs against the recent pandemic.

"The world has been working on ways to eliminate the cold chain by making mRNA vaccines or medicines, which can withstand natural temperatures and we have come up with a solution with our technology," a Cha Vaccine Institute official told UPI News Korea.

"We tested mRNA-Lipoplex vaccines with animals to learn that they were highly effective," he said.

The institute noted that the mRNA-Lipoplex vaccine increased immune responses in body fluids and cells by 50-fold and 15-fold, respectively, compared to mRNA alone.

The company said it would focus on quickly commercializing the technology, which was presented at the mRNA Health Conference in Berlin late last year.

The Cha Vaccine Institute is a unit of Cha Medical and Bio Group, a biopharmaceutical company listed in the Seoul bourse.