Daewoong Pharmaceutical said it would team up with KB Biomed to develop an oral osteoporosis treatment.
On Friday, Daewoong said it signed a joint development and license agreement with KB Biomed for synthetic or recombinant peptides of teriparatide, an osteoporosis drug. The two companies plan to develop the existing teriparatide injection as an oral incrementally modified drug (IMD).
Under the agreement, the two companies will maintain close cooperation to make oral teriparatide, from developing a formulation to conducting clinical trials and commercializing it, Daewoong said.
KB Biomed will develop an oral formulation and conduct pre-clinical trials, and Daewoong will handle formulation development, manufacturing process development, preclinical trials, global trials, and commercialization. In addition, the two companies will share new intellectual property rights.
KB Biomed was founded in 2012 by CEO Lee Yong-kyu, who also works as a professor at Korea National University of Transportation.
The company owns a technology to turn an injection drug into an oral one through an innovative platform. As the platform can be applied to any medicines based on genes, peptides, and chemicals, KB Biomed conducts joint research and projects with various companies and researchers.
Teriparatide is a recombinant human parathyroid hormone (PTH) that acts like a parathyroid hormone in the body. As an osteogenesis promoter, it treats osteoporosis.
Teriparatide shows excellent effects on both men and women, but the drug has been available only in an injection formulation. The treatment is highly-priced and causes many side effects. It is used limitedly for patients who cannot receive a bone resorption inhibitor or those with a high risk of fractures.
In chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, improving patient convenience for the medication is important. If oral teriparatide is commercialized, it will give patients more access to the drug, Daewoong said.
“We are excited to be a partner of KB Biomed, which has an innovative platform to make oral treatments out of many drugs,” said Jeon Seng-ho, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical. “Through this agreement, we will speed up the discovery of oral therapeutics for osteoporosis patients’ administration convenience.”