Boryung to expand ‘Kanarb family’ with hypertension-dyslipidemia combo drug

Boryung Corp. (former Boryung Pharmaceutical) is speeding up the new combination therapy by adding dyslipidemia treatment to the high blood-pressure drug.

Industry analysts watch with interest whether the drugmaker can add new names to its flagship pipeline of the “Kanarb family.”

In a public filing last Thursday, Boryung said it had submitted an investigative new drug (IND) application for the domestic phase 3 clinical trial of BR1017, a candidate substance for improved combination therapy of hypertension and dyslipidemia, to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The company plans to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combined therapy of BR1017A and BR1017B on 147 patients with essential hypertension accompanied by high cholesterol (dyslipidemia) for 36 months. It estimates the clinical period of two years, from March 2023 to February 2025, according to Boryung officials.  

The industry watchers interpreted Boryung’s plan as a move to develop a three-drug combo therapy by adding the components of complex dyslipidemia treatment Atojet to its hypertension drug, Kanarb (fimasartan).  

Atojet is MSD’s complex drug that combines two dyslipidemia treatment components of ezetimibe and atorvastatin. After completing Atojet’s post-marketing surveillance (PMS), Boryung released its drug of the same component, L50, in April last year.  

Boryung has also developed Akarb (fimasartan-atorvastatin), a two-drug treatment of hypertension and dyslipidemia by combining fimasartan and atorvastatin, adding it to its Kanarb family.  

“Based on the need for the paralleled treatment of hypertension and dyslipidemia, we will develop another combo therapy by integrating the already developed and released fimasartan and ezetimibe-avorvastatin, and evaluate their safety and efficacy while improving patients’ drug compliance,” Boryung said in the public notice.