Erum Biotechnologies Inc.

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How ERUM started its story.

The meaning of “to achieve” in Korean is a common word that everyone knows.
However, when connected to what is to be achieved, the meaning of the word “to achieve” becomes different and the power of the word also changes.

What did the two people who met in the same laboratory majoring in chemistry try to achieve
through the company “Erum”?

What we created

What would it feel like to go on a road nobody has ever been before?

Not everyone can stand up Columbus' egg.

One day in the fall of 2005, we learned about a product called Smartfresh, a fruit freshness preservative released by Rohm & Haas in the US, which is registered and sold by a Korean company called Kyungnong, and that the mechanism is that the substance called 1-MCP (1-Methylcyclopropene) in the product blocks the binding of ethylene, a substance that promotes the ripening and aging of fruits, to the receptor. What was interesting was that 1-MCP itself was unstable and could not be stored using conventional methods, but Rohm & Haas had developed a technology that made it possible to store it by storing it in a molecule pocket one by one. Well, if it is difficult to store 1-MCP because it is unstable... Is it unstable? Is it difficult to store? Here, Dr. Yoo's counter-intuitive idea flashed. Then, instead of worrying about how to store it, why don't we make it so that 1-MCP comes out when needed? This was the starting point of Erum. It was an attempt to solve the problems of existing methods in a way that no one in the world had ever tried before. Once someone has made a footprint, people think that anyone can follow that path. But before Columbus saw the egg stand up like that, people thought that eggs could only be placed horizontally.

History

The Footprints ERUM has walked on

2006. 12.

ERUM Biotechnologies Inc. established (Co-founders of Sang-ku Yoo and Jinwook Chung)

2008. 12.

“New Excellent Technology” certified by Ministry of Knowledge Economy in Korea

2010. 4

“KOTRA Seal of Excellence” awarded by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency

2010. 7

“Green Technology” certified by Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affair in Korea

2011. 12

License-out to one of the global big companies in postharvest area.

2023. 1

Finalized a “Patent Ownership Transfer” process for the scalability of global business.

Technology

Let’s reduce plant’s stress with cyclopropenes.

Plants release ethylene as a type of plant hormone to promote the ripening of fruits or to promote the fall of flowers, and plants react very sensitively to the ethylene gas released here. Therefore, once a plant is exposed to ethylene gas, it stops growth and rapidly undergoes a type of decomposition process that promotes various metabolic processes, and as a result, the fruits and flowers begin to wither and rot. For this reason, if only one fruit begins to rot while the fruit is being stored, the ethylene released from it simultaneously affects the surrounding fruits, causing all the fruits to rot at the same time.

Therefore, if the plant's sensitive reaction to ethylene can be properly blocked, it is possible to dramatically extend the storage period while maintaining the quality of the fruit or flower in an optimal state. For this reason, various methods have been traditionally designed and utilized to suppress the production of ethylene from plants as much as possible in order to maintain the freshness of the fruit and store it for a long time. For example, the most up-to-date method currently used to store fruits is to suppress the normal respiration process of plants by reducing the oxygen content in cold storage and instead increasing the carbon dioxide content, while continuously filtering and thoroughly removing various volatile organic compounds (including ethylene) emitted from plants.

In 1994, Prof. Sisler in the U.S. announced a new method to block the action of ethylene in plants using cyclopropene derivatives, especially 1-methylcyclopropene (hereinafter referred to as 1-MCP). The content was that if the binding site where plants recognize ethylene as a hormone is blocked in advance with cyclopropene, which has an ethylene-like structure, the speed of the aging and decay process of the plant can be dramatically reduced. By applying 1-MCP(1-methyl cyclopropene) gas to fruit, he confirmed that the quality of the best fruit harvested at the optimal time could be maintained while storing the fruit for a long time. Based on this, commercial technologies to store and use 1-MCP introduced as the product in the postharvest market.

Erum has developed a unique technology that stably generates 1-MCP when used by utilizing a precursor just before conversion, and is currently registered and supplied it in the global market through partners. In addition to 1-MCP, Erum has been conducting research on synthesizing dozens of cyclopropenes with different molecular structures and applying them to plants to protect crops from environmental stress such as drought or abnormally high temperatures (preventing yield declines in cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.), preventing overripe fruits to control harvest time and improving quality (most tropical fruits including apples, pears, kiwis, and persimmons), relieving stress in plants during the harvest process and improving quality (flowers such as roses, lilies, and carnations), and improving the quality of fresh convenience foods that undergo a washing and processing process (products that require a salad processing for various vegetables and fruits).

Dreaming of Paul Janssen in Korea…

There is a company called Janssen, headquartered at Beerse, Belgium. It is a multinational pharmaceutical company whose name is already familiar in Korea. (It is currently an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson.) Oneday walking around the company, which is like a campus, I came up with a question. How could a multinational pharmaceutical company like Janssen, with over 20,000 employees, be born in Belgium, a country with a population of just over 10 million? It is often said that new drug development requires enormous investment and time, and is a business that is difficult to succeed in without economies of scale. However, if you follow the footsteps of Dr. Paul Janssen, the founder of Janssen, you will realize that even a country's fundamental industry ultimately might start from the creativity, potential, and persistence of one person. It is said that after losing his 4-year-old sister to tuberculous meningitis when he was a high school student, he decided to devote his life to medical research. (His four-year-old sister died of Tubercular Meningitis…Her loss made him decide to devote his life to medical research.)

While there is a will of our own when we choose a path, in many cases, it is often chosen by a decisive event that appears to us. The same goes for Erum’s initiatiation of Glaceum Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and its dive into new drug development. Erum did not start developing a new drug development company and start developing something. Erum got more and more absorbed in a substance that it discovered by chance, and eventually started thinking, “Wow, I want to try making this into a medicine.” Innovations or great discoveries in any field are rarely made through quantitative investment or a barrage of materials. Rather, they are often created from depth of immersion rather than breadth.
Erum wants to create a new metabolic disease treatment with a mechanism that hasn’t existed yet in the world through the power of immersion.

At Glaceum, there are a group of people who believe in the power of immersion, not scale, who dream of creating a First In Class new drug not only in our country but around the world.

Systematic approach is not the only way to pioneer undiscovered field. Sometimes, it seems to bring a different thinking in solving a problem not to be too much wired to think systematically
(but still need to be scientific!).

Visit Glaceum website

Do you want to keep something fresh longer? Let us show you what we can do!