MDimune

What MDimune does

Carus Bio (formerly MDimune, rebranded April 2026) is a privately held South Korean biotechnology company headquartered in the Seoul Forest Digital Tower, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. The company is developing a next-generation in vivo CAR-T cell therapy platform based on proprietary mRNA delivery technology, with the goal of engineering T-cells directly inside the patient's body and eliminating the costly and complex ex vivo manufacturing required by conventional CAR-T therapies. CEO Bae Sin-gyu has publicly targeted a reduction of cancer treatment costs to roughly one-hundredth of current CAR-T therapy levels, which can exceed $500,000 per treatment course.

The company operates three business lines: (1) a New Drug Development business (신약개발사업) focused on the in vivo CAR-T pipeline as the long-term value driver via licensing or co-development with larger pharma; (2) a Healthcare Business (헬스케어사업) offering stem cell sales and related therapeutic products to research institutions and clinical customers; and (3) Analysis Services (분석 서비스) providing contract research and testing to external biotech and pharma clients. The company is pre-commercial for its core therapeutics pipeline and currently generates at most modest service-based revenue.

Carus Bio is led by CEO Bae Sin-gyu and Managing Director Jeong Tae-gi, with a workforce of 11-50 employees. It has raised cumulative disclosed funding of approximately $8.83M, including a 2019 Series 2 round led by Dayli Partners, Intervalue Partners, Kclavis, Quad Asset Management, Stick Ventures, and The Wells Investment, with earlier support from the TIPS Program and STIC Ventures. The company serves primarily pharmaceutical and biotech partners (future), research institutions and healthcare providers (current service customers), and ultimately patients with intractable cancers and other refractory diseases.

Name

MDimune

Legal name

주식회사 카루스바이오

Website

https://mdimune.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Carus Bio (formerly MDimune) is a South Korean biotech developing a proprietary mRNA delivery platform for next-generation in vivo CAR-T cell therapies, targeting dramatic cost reductions versus conventional CAR-T treatments while serving pharma partners and research institutions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cell and Gene Therapy / In Vivo CAR-T Therapeutics

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing (325414)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Cell Therapy CDMO (Autologous/Allogeneic Manufacturing) (HLAGAGAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

mRNA/LNP & Nucleic Acid Therapeutics CDMO (HLAGABAF), Gene Therapy Vector Manufacturing & CDMO Services (HLAAACAJ)

Keywords

• In vivo CAR-T therapy
• MRNA delivery platform
• Cell and gene therapy
• Stem cell products
• Biotech drug development

Headquarters

HQ city

Seongdong

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. New Drug Development (신약개발사업): Revenue generation through the development and eventual commercialization of novel in vivo CAR-T therapeutics for treating cancer and other intractable diseases. As a pre-commercial stage biotech, this is the primary long-term revenue driver via licensing, co-development deals, or direct product sales.
2. Healthcare Business (헬스케어사업): Healthcare services including stem cell sales and related therapeutic offerings, providing near-term revenue streams while the drug pipeline matures.
3. Analysis Services (분석 서비스): Contract research and analysis services provided to external biotech and pharma companies, generating recurring service-based revenue and establishing industry partnerships.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Carus Bio (formerly MDimune) develops a proprietary mRNA delivery platform that engineers T-cells directly inside the patient's body to create next-generation in vivo CAR-T therapies for cancer and other intractable diseases. The company also provides near-term commercial offerings including stem cell products and contract analysis/research services sold to research institutions, hospitals, and laboratories. Future therapeutic products are intended to be commercialized via partnerships, licensing, and co-development deals with larger pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Product overview

MDimune operates as a biotech therapeutics company focused on developing next-generation in vivo CAR-T cell therapies through an mRNA delivery platform technology. The company offers drug development services, healthcare business solutions, analysis services, and stem cell sales. The core product is an in vivo CAR-T therapy platform that enables cell and gene therapy development for treating refractory diseases. Based on the source material, MDimune has rebranded to CARUS Bio (카루스바이오).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• In Vivo CAR-T Therapy Platform A next-generation in vivo CAR-T therapeutic platform that uses proprietary mRNA delivery technology to engineer T-cells directly inside the patient's body, avoiding ex vivo cell extraction and manufacturing. Designed to deliver cell and gene therapies for incurable diseases and intended to be commercialized via licensing or co-development with pharmaceutical and biotech partners.
• Drug Development Business (신약개발사업) Pre-clinical and clinical development of novel in vivo CAR-T therapeutics for cancer and intractable diseases, with commercialization planned via licensing or co-development agreements with larger pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
• Healthcare Business - Stem Cell Sales (헬스케어사업 / 줄기세포 판매) Stem cell product sales to research institutions, hospitals, and clinical laboratories in South Korea, providing high-quality stem cells for research and clinical applications while the drug pipeline matures.
• Analysis Services (분석 서비스 의뢰) Contract research and analysis services provided to external biotech, pharma, and research customers, including specialized CAR-T analysis and biotech testing capabilities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Target reduction of cancer treatment costs to 1/100th of current CAR-T therapy costs
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• K-Beauty Expo (2025)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 September 2025The company participated in the 2025 K-Beauty Expo, an industry trade event, suggesting a go-to-market partnership with the expo organizers or a strategic presence to raise brand awareness among the beauty and healthcare consumer market. This indicates an exploratory go-to-market initiative outside the core pharma/biotech channel.
• Korean Business Media (E-Daily, Yakup.com, DealSite)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerStrong media relationships with major Korean business news outlets including E-Daily, Yakup.com, and DealSite.co.kr. These outlets have covered the company's rebranding from MDimune to Carus Bio and the company's in vivo CAR-T technology positioning. Media coverage serves as an indirect marketing and investor/partner awareness channel.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• BioNTech: BioNTech is a leading mRNA therapeutics company with expanding work in cell therapies and oncology. As a broad incumbent in mRNA delivery, it represents both a potential partner and a competitive threat in in vivo engineered cell therapy.
• Moderna: Moderna is a global leader in mRNA platform technology with significant R&D scale and a broad pipeline spanning infectious disease, oncology, and rare disease. It is a broad incumbent in mRNA delivery and an indirect competitor in mRNA-based cell therapy applications.

Direct peers

• Allogene Therapeutics: Allogene is a clinical-stage leader in allogeneic ('off-the-shelf') CAR-T therapies, directly competing in next-generation CAR-T approaches aimed at improving accessibility and reducing cost — the same problem MDimune/Carus Bio is solving via in vivo engineering.
• Cellectis: Cellectis develops allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies using proprietary gene editing — a direct peer in next-generation cell therapy engineering with a focus on reducing manufacturing complexity and treatment cost.
• Capstan Therapeutics: Capstan is an mRNA-based in vivo cell therapy company focused on engineering immune cells (including CAR-T-like applications) via targeted lipid nanoparticles — same in vivo cell engineering approach as MDimune/Carus Bio's mRNA delivery platform.
• Umoja Biopharma: Umoja is developing in vivo CAR-T therapies using payload-based gene delivery to reprogram immune cells in situ — directly comparable to MDimune/Carus Bio's in vivo CAR-T thesis, just with a different delivery modality.

Emerging players

• Arcturus Therapeutics: Arcturus is a clinical-stage mRNA medicines company developing lipid-mediated RNA delivery platforms, with applications in rare disease and oncology. It is a comparable emerging mRNA delivery platform company addressing similar cell-targeted delivery challenges.
• Orna Therapeutics: Orna is developing in vivo cell therapies (including CAR-T) using engineered circular RNA delivered via lipid nanoparticles — a direct conceptual competitor in the in vivo mRNA-based CAR-T space.
• Crispr Therapeutics: Crispr Therapeutics is a leading gene-editing company developing both ex vivo CRISPR-edited cell therapies (e.g., CAR-T) and in vivo gene-editing approaches. It overlaps with MDimune/Carus Bio's positioning at the intersection of gene editing/cell engineering and novel delivery modalities.

Regional players

• Samsung Biologics: Samsung Biologics is a major South Korean biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer. As a regional player in the Korean biotech ecosystem, it represents a potential CDMO partner and a comparable Korean-headquartered biotech/services company.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/mdimune

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about MDimune