Hyundai Pharmaceutical has started to develop a combination treatment, which combines the diabetes treatment drug Sitagliptin (product name: Januvia) and a hypertension treatment Telmisartan (product name: Micardis).

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Hyundai’s phase 1 clinical trial for HDDO-1609, the company’s designation for the drug, last Friday.

The clinical trial will evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetic characteristics when giving patients a combination treatment of HDDO-16091 (Sitagliptin) and HDDO-16092 (Telmisartan).

This clinical trial is to understand the interactions between the two drugs before further developing the compound. If there is no problem with the safety, the company plans to conduct additional clinical of the combination treatment.

Januvia, developed by MSD, was the first Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4(DPP-4) inhibitor drug launched in the market.

The drug has sizeable clinical trial data on disease such a cardiovascular disease and is easy to prescribe to patients with kidney problems. With such benefits, Januvia ranked first in sales for DPP-4 inhibitor drugs in the first half of this year with a sales of 75 billion won ($66.6 million).

lhs@docdocdoc.co.kr

<© Korea Biomedical Review, All rights reserved.>