Hanmi Science said on Wednesday that it plans to pursue obesity management as a strong growth engine to build a unique portfolio called, the "Hanmi Obesity Pipeline (H.O.P)."
Recently, Danish biotech company Novo Nordisk has gained significant media attention for its weight loss drug, Wegovy (ingredient: semaglutide). It has demonstrated outstanding treatment benefits compared to similar weight loss drugs, leading to a surge in demand for the medication.
The H.O.P project is comprised of five drugs, including efpeglenatide, which is being developed as an affordable Korean customized GLP-1 obesity treatment, and a next-generation triple agonist LA-GLP/GIP/GCG that simultaneously activates GLP-1 and glucagon, which increases metabolism, insulin secretion, and GIP, which helps suppress appetite.
Based on the efficacy confirmed in preclinical studies, Hanmi expects LA-GLP/GIP/GCG to show strong efficacy comparable to the weight loss effect of surgical therapy (around 25 percent).
In addition, Hanmi is actively conducting research and development on biologics that can improve the quality of weight loss by preventing muscle mass loss that may occur when using GLP-1 drugs and also help suppress the yo-yo phenomenon.
In this regard, the company already identified candidates that can improve eating disorders such as binge eating.
As patients' lifestyle and medication safety must be considered when using obesity drugs, Hanmi plans to develop digital therapeutics (DTx) that can provide solutions to this problem. The DTx product is expected to further enhance the weight loss effect of the therapeutic drugs and help patients modify their lifestyle while further enhancing the safety of the drugs.
"We plan to sequentially introduce a variety of customized therapeutic products that can help in the entire lifecycle of obesity treatment, from treatment to prevention and post-weight loss management," said a company official from Hanmi Science. "We expect the H.O.P project to be a new growth engine for the company as we prepare for our 50th anniversary,”
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