◼ The government has been carrying out a "domestic sewage-based infection disease monitoring project" since April, with the goal of establishing an early monitoring system for domestic sewage-based infection diseases.

◼ "Theragen Bio will contribute to the establishment of a healthcare paradigm of prediction and prevention with their excellent NGS analysis capabilities."

Theragen Bio (CEO: Samuel Hwang), a global genome analysis service and AI-based drug development company, signed an MOU with KAD (CEO: Sung-pyo Kim), an infection prevention platform company, to build a sewage-based monitoring system, an early warning system for infectious diseases. Going forward, the two companies will work together on all activities to build a domestic sewage-based surveillance system.

Through this MOU, KAD will preemptively detect the spread of infectious diseases in the region without violating the privacy of individuals through a sewage-based monitoring system, and Theragen Bio will perform NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) analysis using DNA and RNA extracted from sewage samples to analyze infectious diseases and mutants.

The sewage-based monitoring system, which collects samples from wastewater treatment plants and analyzes them, is gaining attention as a new scientific analysis method that can save social efforts and costs for clinical-based epidemic surveys and complement sample surveillance centered on medical institutions. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also recognized it as a new infection monitoring technology, and it is being implemented in several advanced countries, including the United States.

Since April of this year, the government has been carrying out a "sewage-based infectious disease monitoring" project that analyzes the amount of viruses mixed in with domestic sewage in 64 sewage treatment plants in 17 provinces across the country to estimate the occurrence of patient cases in local communities. The domestic sewage monitoring system is included in the government's 110 national tasks, "Strengthening the Infectious Disease Response System and Upgrading the Epidemic Response System," and the government plans to expand the project nationwide in cooperation with provincial health and environment research institutes.

Theragen Bio CEO Samuel Hwang said, "We are pleased to be part of the construction project of the sewage-based infectious disease system, which is part of our efforts to lead the healthcare paradigm of prediction and prevention," adding, "Through Theragen Bio's high-level NGS analysis capabilities, we will contribute to the national-level preemptive prevention of infectious diseases."

KAD CEO Sung-pyo Kim said, "Through this MOU, we have established a foundation for collecting and analyzing information necessary for preventing and responding to infectious diseases more quickly and accurately through the sewage-based infectious disease surveillance system," and added, "KAD will do its best with Theragen Bio to create a safe and healthy society against the increasing threat of infectious diseases."

About TheragenBio

Theragen Bio is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of 4th generation personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines, providing genomic analysis services to over 700 medical institutions in Korea and research institutions in over 40 countries overseas. Theragen Bio was first established in 2009 as a bio research center within Theragen Etex, and in May 2020, it was promoted to an independent company called TheragenBio to  make  a  second  leap  into  therapeutics  R&D  based  on  the  world-class  capabilities accumulated over the past decade. Theragen Bio aims to realize personalized medicine based on genomic technology and provide true hope and practical solutions for human welfare and health.

About KAD(Korea Action Decade)

KAD provides preemptive infectious disease prevention and spread prevention services based on sewage epidemiology-based infectious disease surveillance and early warning technology, as well as fluid sterilization and disinfection technology that utilizes UV-LED, an eco-friendly and mercury-free alternative. For the first time in Korea, KAD's researchers have achieved the result of identifying and isolating asymptomatic COVID-19 patients through sewage epidemiology-based infectious disease surveillance research and are conducting research to introduce and establish a 'sewage-based infectious disease monitoring system' in Korea. The company name KAD reflects the goal of acting proactively and adapting to new markets, a time when proactive actions are needed to create a sustainable society, and we want to create a safe and healthy society from the ever-increasing threat of infectious diseases.