SK Biopharmaceuticals presented the company’s roadmap and vision for its digital healthcare business ahead of CES 2023 at a media briefing in Seoul on Wednesday.

For instance, SK Biopharma’s “Project Zero” aims to become a total healthcare solution provider by developing wearable devices converged with AI and mobile technologies that can offer real-time monitoring and data-driven seizure detection for patients with epilepsy, the company said.

“We're trying to get to the areas where we can expand our business and create synergies with drugs that already exist in our portfolio like Ontozry (ingredient: cenobamate),” SK Biopharmaceuticals Vice President of R&D Innovation Hwang Sun-gwan said. “There are many epilepsy drugs, but 30 percent of epilepsy patients still cannot properly manage this disease, regardless of medicine or surgical procedures.”

He presented figures from the Cenobamate clinical development program, showing that the sudden unexpected death of epilepsy patients (SUDEP) was 2.3 per 1,000 people, with as many as nine deaths annually.

Accordingly, SK Biopharma has developed five differently designed epilepsy wearable devices that will be showcased at CES 2023, including Zero Glasses, Zero Wired, Zero Headband, Zero Earbud, and Zero Headset. In addition, Zero Glasses and Zero Wired recently won the CES 2023 Innovation Awards for outstanding design and engineering.

The wearable devices are compatible with the Zero App, which can record seizures, gather bio-signal data in real-time, and later analyze them. According to a company official, the name of the project derives from the company's key mission to strive for the potential of zero seizures for patients.

“We are pleased to share our digital healthcare vision through Project Zero and wearable devices that will enable us to leap forward in becoming a global healthcare solution provider,” Hwang said. “By introducing the innovative new drug and digital therapeutics (DTx) together, we can accelerate the development time and cost to integrate existing innovations with new drugs and quickly bring them to market for patients.”

Regarding the category for approval of this DTx, SK Biopharmaceuticals said that they are working closely wiith the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to select an appropriate category to proceed with the approval process.

He added that SK Biopharmaceuticals plans to expand its digital healthcare solutions beyond the central nervous system disorders, including cancer.