GC Biopharma launches hemophilia treatment using personalized dosage app

GC Biopharma said Thursday that it has released “WAPPS-Hemo,” which the company said is Korea’s first individually customized software to treat hemophilia patients.

WAPPS-Hemo has the characteristics of performing the tasks of medical workers to determine the appropriate dose and interval of prescribing GC Biopharma’s hemophilia treatments -- Green Gene F and Green Mono -- on patients based on their pharmacokinetic profile, according to a GC Biopharma official.

It helps patients take the initiative in managing the disease by checking their predicted blood coagulation factor levels through a mobile application.

GC Biopharma collaborated with two Canadian universities -- McMaster University and the University of Waterloo – to develop the software. The company installed the Population PK models of GC Pharma's Green Gene F and Green Mono on the platforms owned by these universities.

Recently, the method of determining dosage for hemophilia patients' blood clotting factors has been changing from a weight-based method to patient-specific pharmacokinetics (PK)-based method. Since each hemophilia patient has a very different pharmacokinetic profile, such as half-life for blood clotting factors, many limitations exist in predicting individual dose usage based on weight.

"With this platform, we expect to increase medication compliance through personalized treatment for hemophilia patients, reduce total medical expenses due to reduced bleeding rates, and improve the quality of life for patients,” said Choi Bong-kyu, head of GC Biopharma’s Data Science Team.