Food and drug safety ministry transfers liver organoid technology to Daewoong Pharm

The food and drug safety ministry said it has transferred its liver organoid platform technology for toxicity evaluation to domestic pharmaceutical company Daewoong Pharm. The technology was developed by a research team at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology through a ministry project.

Daewoong Pharm signed the agreement to acquire capabilities for producing three-dimensional human liver organoids and conducting drug evaluations. The company plans to use the platform to advance its preclinical toxicity assessment systems while responding to trends toward reducing animal testing.

The platform replicates human liver tissue structures and bile excretion functions, offering higher predictability for human drug toxicity than existing two-dimensional cell methods. It maintains functionality after long-term culture and freeze-thaw cycles.

The ministry is pushing for international standardization to have the method adopted as an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development test guideline. If accepted, it would allow Korean test methods to be submitted to regulatory agencies globally.

"The ministry expects this transfer will enable widespread use of human-based next-generation toxicity assessment technologies in new drug development, reducing animal testing while ensuring safety evaluations are more suitable for humans," the ministry said.