Daewoong Pharmaceutical said Friday that the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) would support the development of DWN12088, its pulmonary fibrosis treatment candidate.

Park Joon-seok (left), head of Daewoong’s new drug development center, and KDDF CEO Muk Hyun-sang pose after singing their agreement on Thursday.

DWN12088 is an oral treatment for pulmonary fibrosis with a mechanism of selectively suppressing the activity of Prolyl-tRNA synthetase (PRS) protein and excessive production of collagen. Preclinical results have confirmed the excellent efficacy of the drug in treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Accordingly, Daewoong will receive research and development funding for the phase I clinical trials and non-clinical trials of the PRS pulmonary fibrosis treatment, DWN12088, from the KDDF.

The company expects to achieve a robust antifibrotic effect and broad safety on pulmonary fibrosis disease to meet the unfulfilled medical needs of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and increase the possibility of exporting the technology.

“DWN12088 is a promising candidate that shows Daewoong's new drug research capability,” said Park Joon-seok, head of the new drug development center at Daewoong. “We expect it will satisfy the unmet medical needs of patients suffering from pulmonary fibrosis without side effects as it has strong anti-fiber efficacy and wide safety.”

The company also plans to carry out clinical trials for a variety of fibrotic diseases that do not have the proper therapeutic agent besides the lung, Park added.

Daewoong plans to start conducting the clinical trials for the drug in July of this year and hopes to launch the drug by 2025.

corea022@docdocdoc.co.kr

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