Cosmax Group (192820.KS) said on the 21st that it will expand joint microbiome-based bio and healthcare research with Mass General Brigham (MGB), the organization overseeing the network of teaching hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School. The company aims to apply technology built up in its cosmetics research, development and manufacturing (ODM) business to health functional foods and the discovery of biotech drug candidates, broadening its reach into the medical field.
Cosmax signed an agreement with MGB on the second phase of their microbiome research, called the VIVA project, at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston on the 13th. Attendees included Cosmax Group Chairman Lee Kyung-soo, Cosmax BTI Vice Chairman and CEO Lee Byung-joo and Park Chun-ho, head of the company's R&I Center, along with MGH President Marcela Guadalupe Del Carmen, MGH Chief Medical Officer Will Curry and MGB Chief Development Officer Mike McNally.
The two sides confirmed the potential of microbiome-based research through a first phase of joint work that began in 2024. By combining Cosmax's big data on skin microbiomes with MGB's clinical data, they identified the mechanism by which substances derived from certain microbiomes ease symptoms and improve skin barrier function in atopic dermatitis models. The findings were published in Allergy, an international journal in allergy and clinical immunology, and the companies filed a domestic patent application on the related microbe-derived technology.
Building on those results, the partners will run the VIVA project from this year through 2029. The second phase will widen a research scope that had centered on skin to cover functional ingredients for health foods and biotech drug candidates. The partners plan to develop materials and commercialize products in areas including anti-aging, slower aging, and weight and metabolic management.
Cosmax plans to identify lactic acid bacteria and health food ingredients with mechanisms similar to GLP-1, which the global medical community uses in treatments for obesity. The company also intends to use MGB's clinical infrastructure to verify the efficacy and safety of candidate substances and to assess whether functional ingredients can be commercialized. Artificial intelligence will be used extensively in the research process, including in forming hypotheses and optimizing candidate substances.
"In our first joint study with Harvard Medical School, we produced tangible results such as publication in an international journal and a patent application," Cosmax Group Chairman Lee Kyung-soo said. "Through the VIVA project, we will secure technological leadership in the bio and medical fields, starting from cosmetics."