Hanall Biopharma and Daewoong Pharmaceutical have entered clinical trials for their new pipeline, targeting the 10 trillion won ($7.46 billion) global Parkinson's disease treatment market.
Hanall, Daewoong, and NurrOn Pharmaceuticals said Thursday that they have completed the first dosing of patients in a phase 1 clinical trial of HL192 (ATH-399A in NurrOn’s code name), a candidate for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
HL192 is a drug pipeline derived from Boston-based NerrOn, a company co-founded by Harvard Medical School Professor Kim Kwang-soo and NurrOn CEO Kim Deog-joong to develop new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. The drug has multiple mechanisms of action to improve the symptoms and underlying disease of Parkinson's disease.
In May, the three companies launched a joint research program to develop HL192 for various neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease. Hanall and Daewoong joined NurrOn as Series A investors in 2021.
The HL192 phase 1 study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of HL192 orally as a single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending doses (MAD) compared to placebo in healthy adults aged 18 to 80 years. The three companies are targeting top-line results from the HL192 phase 1 study in the first half of next year.
According to the companies, HL192 improves symptoms of Parkinson's disease by activating Nurr1, a protein factor that promotes the production of dopamine neurons. Last year, the company received research funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), the largest private foundation for Parkinson's disease research, founded by famous American actor Michael J. Fox.
"We are pleased that the three companies have collaborated with the common goal of developing a treatment for Parkinson's disease and have achieved the fruit of entering phase 1," Hanall Biopharma CEO Jung Seung-won said. "Starting with this phase 1 clinical trial, we will examine the possibility of expanding to various neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's.”
Daewoong Pharmaceutical CEO Jeon Seng-ho said, "We are pleased that the open collaboration efforts between Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Hanall Biopharma have achieved the first milestone, and will continue to collaborate with companies with promising technologies in various ways."
NurrOn CEO Kim said, “We are pleased to enter the first phase of development of ATH-399A and thank Hanall, Daewoong, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for their support in bringing us to phase 1. We look forward to building on the phase 1 results and quickly moving into phase 2 to provide Parkinson's patients with a better chance at life.”
Katharina Klapper, director of the Clinical Research Center at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, said, "The Michael J. Fox Foundation is committed to meeting the unmet needs of patients by funding research to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. With the field of neurodegenerative disease research advancing rapidly, we are pleased to award NurrOn a grant that aims to treat a key factor in Parkinson's disease."
According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of patients with Parkinson's disease in Korea exceeded 120,000 last year, up about 14 percent from 105,882 in 2018. Reportlinker, a U.S. market research firm, also said the global Parkinson's drug market is expected to grow 1.6 times from $4.9 billion in 2022 to $8 billion in 2030.