Ildong Pharmaceutical said Monday that it has acquired a patent regarding the method for making a Lucentis (ingredient: Ranibizumab) biobetter, a macular degeneration treatment.

IDB0062 is a biobetter candidate of Lucentis, a conventional bio-drug that inhibits vascular endothelial cell growth factor, which is a primary factor causing retinal disease. The drug treats neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

The company’s biobetter improved the production efficiency by modifying the protein gene of Ranibizumab and used Ajou University’s “tissue permeable peptide platform technology” to boost drug efficacy and solve resistance problems.

In an animal test, IDB0062 showed superior drug efficacy compared to Lucentis. The company also expects that it will be able to develop an eye drop form of the drug along with an injection form after confirming superior drug delivery efficiency to the eye tissues.

Ildong also confirmed the candidate showed excellent results when compared to its competition drug Eylea.

The company has already applied for patents to major foreign countries such as the U.S., Europe, China and Japan, and will pursue various commercialization strategies such as new drug development and licensing agreement depending on the biobetter’s progress.

According to IMS data, Lucentis, manufactured by Novartis, is a blockbuster biopharmaceutical product with $3.8 billion in global sales as of 2015.

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