NGeneBio Partners with Incheon Sejong Hospital to Develop Personalized GLP-1 Therapy Solution

First Clinical Collaboration to Develop Tests for Predicting and Assessing Responses and Side Effects of Obesity Medications
Discovery of Personalized Biomarkers for Korean Patients Through Genetic and Blood Test Analysis

NGeneBio, an artificial intelligence (AI) precision medicine company, announced on August 27 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint research with Incheon Sejong Hospital to develop a genetic and blood test solution to evaluate patient-specific treatment response and side effect risks for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) class anti-obesity drugs.

Keun-Sook Lee, Director of the Corporate Research Institute at NGeneBio (right), and Byung-Hee Oh, Director of Incheon Sejong Hospital, are taking a commemorative photo after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint research to develop a GLP-1 drug response and side effect prediction test on the 26th at Incheon Sejong Hospital located in Jakjeon-dong, Gyeyang-gu, Incheon. NGeneBio

GLP-1 class anti-obesity drugs, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, have gained attention for their significant weight loss effects. However, there are substantial differences in individual responses among patients, and there is a need for caution due to adverse reactions such as gastrointestinal side effects, gallbladder and biliary tract disease, and pancreatitis. NGeneBio has begun developing a “GLP-1 Personalized Therapy” test solution that predicts both the treatment efficacy and the risk of side effects for individual patients in advance, and monitors adverse reactions during therapy.

This partnership represents the first collaboration to link the development of a GLP-1 personalized therapy test with real-world clinical practice. By combining NGeneBio’s genomics and liquid biopsy analysis technology with Incheon Sejong Hospital’s expertise in obesity patient management and follow-up, the two organizations plan to identify biomarkers related to treatment response and side effects in Korean patients, using Korean clinical data as the foundation.

The two institutions will build a Korean clinical cohort that links patients’ genetic data, blood test results, weight changes, treatment efficacy, and adverse reactions, and will validate the effectiveness of these biomarkers. They will verify key candidate biomarkers associated with major genes such as GLP1R and GIPR, previously reported in overseas studies, using Korean patient data. In addition, they plan to discover new biomarkers that reflect characteristics of domestic patients in order to further advance their testing products and analysis algorithms.

The product currently being developed by NGeneBio is a precision testing solution for managing the use of GLP-1 class anti-obesity drugs at each stage, before and after prescription. Before administration, patient genetics are analyzed to assess individual treatment response and side effect risk. After administration, blood changes are tracked to detect early signals of major adverse reactions.

The Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center at Incheon Sejong Hospital is a specialized center in obesity and metabolic disease treatment. Since its founding, it has performed over 1,800 bariatric metabolic surgeries. It has also accumulated experience in treating severely and super-severely obese patients, including becoming the first in Asia to successfully perform single-incision bariatric metabolic surgery using the Da Vinci SP robot. In this research, the hospital will conduct long-term follow-up on GLP-1-treated patients’ responses and adverse reactions, and will evaluate the clinical validity of the testing technology.

The research data will not only enhance the testing product but will also be used to broaden collaboration with pharmaceutical companies in the future. It will segment patient-specific treatment responses and side effect profiles to identify patient groups best suited for specific therapies and clarify the characteristics of those with lower efficacy or higher risk of adverse reactions.

Byung-Hee Oh, Director of Incheon Sejong Hospital, stated, “As GLP-1 therapies produce differing treatment effects and adverse reactions for each patient, it is essential to systematically analyze real patient treatment data. We expect that this joint research will provide evidence for optimizing personalized therapy for Korean patients.”

Min-Sik Kim, CEO of NGeneBio, said, “By combining Incheon Sejong Hospital’s expertise in obesity treatment with NGeneBio’s precision diagnostics, we will enhance our test solution for continuous prediction and monitoring, from pre-treatment through ongoing therapy. We aim to link patient-specific response data not only to product development but also to future collaborations with pharmaceutical companies in anti-obesity drug development, expanding into a precision medicine business model that bridges diagnostics and new drug development in the obesity and metabolic disease sector.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.