[Abstract] 

Aptamers are non-natural nucleic acid ligands, which bind to their targets, with comparable binding affinity and specificity to their target molecules. Aptamer technology offers several advantages like in vitro-oriented screening method, ease of chemical modification, scalable chemical manufacturing, and high stability. However, there is only one therapeutic aptamer in the market so far and aptamer-based product is quite limited.

To solve the technological barriers, aptamer technology has evolved by introducing chemical modifications in nucleic acids. Chemical modification was designed by understanding how antibodies works. Aptamer Sciences has leveraged state-of-art aptamer technology to try to develop aptamer-based products in both areas of diagnostics and therapeutics. Finally, an aptamer-based lung cancer IVD product was developed and the first MFDS approval was obtained. We also have innovative preclinical candidate aptamer pipelines in the therapeutics area.