VLPs can be produced by various expression systems including bacteria, insect, yeast, or mammalian cells. Optipharm is building on a baculovirus-insect cell expression systems, one of the most powerful of recombinant protein expression systems. The baculovirus expression system is a safe system that only shows pathogenicity against insects among invertebrates without pathogenicity to vertebrates. The baculovirus system, expressing proteins in eukaryotic insect cells, produce proteins with similar characteristics to those of humans and animals rather than prokaryotic expression system ( e.g. Escherichia coli ).

Optipharm utilizes a VLP vaccine antigen production system (OptiVLP^TM) based on baculovirus expression. We are capable of performing this system from selecting target genes to producing the seed virus for the vaccine within 6 months.

Effective VLP Production System (OptiVLP^TM)

We also have a self-developed unique vector system differentiated from existing VLP development companies this system displays 3 to 5 times higher expression rate than the existing expression system and is able to produce products with lower costs, securing higher economic feasibility. This technology has been patented (KR 10-2017-0114614, PCT/KR2018/002716) as a mean to amplify efficacy for commercialization and by solving issues of low expression.

Development of Hyper Expression System for VLP Production

We are building an optimal VLP development system, the OptiVLP^TM, and a hyper expression vector system by improving the existing insect cell expression system.

Resolved Issues of Existing Insect Expression System (OptiVLP^TM)

Type	Insect Cell	E. coli	Yeast	Animal Cell	Transgenic Plants
Development Speed	++	++++	+++	+++	+++
Scale up	++	++++	+++	++	++
VLP Complexity	++++	+	++	++	+++
Production Cost	+++	+	++	++++	+++
Licensing	++	++++	++++	++++	+