Korean Drugmakers Race to Develop Longer-Acting Obesity Treatments
Korean pharmaceutical companies are advancing biweekly and monthly injections, an oral candidate and a four-target therapy as the country’s first homegrown GLP-1 obesity drug nears prescription rollout.
South Korean drugmakers are accelerating efforts to develop longer-lasting injections, oral medicines and multi-target therapies for obesity, as the country prepares for the first prescriptions of a domestically developed GLP-1 drug.
JW Pharmaceutical is developing an obesity treatment designed to be injected once every two weeks, halving the annual number of doses from 52 for conventional weekly GLP-1 injections to 26. The company licensed the candidate from China’s Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals in April and applied to South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in August for phase three trial plans covering obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical is taking two approaches to reducing the burden of injections. It is developing a long-acting formulation intended for once-monthly dosing and a microneedle patch that could replace a conventional needle. The company applied for a phase one trial of the long-acting injection in the first half of this year and is conducting a phase one study of the patch. Daewoong said the programs are intended to offer complementary options based on patients’ treatment settings and preferences.
Other companies are moving beyond standard injections. Ildong Pharmaceutical completed a phase one study of its internally developed oral GLP-1 candidate and released top-line results in September last year. It is pursuing a licensing deal while carrying out foundational work needed to enter phase two. Celltrion, meanwhile, is conducting preclinical research on a candidate that acts on four targets, including GLP-1.
Competition is also shifting toward commercialization. Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s Epe was approved by the Korean drug safety ministry on Oct. 7 as the country’s 45th domestically developed new drug and its first homegrown GLP-1 obesity medicine. Hanmi shipped its first supply on Oct. 22, and CEO Hwang Sang-yeon said prescriptions could begin as early as Oct. 29.
Hanmi is also pursuing drugs aimed at preserving muscle while reducing weight. In August, it licensed metabolic-disease candidate HM17321, a UCN2 analogue, to Genentech. The drug is in a phase one trial, and the agreement could be worth up to $2.3 billion, including development, regulatory and commercialization milestones.
The pipeline shows how Korean pharmaceutical companies are seeking to compete through dosing convenience, alternative delivery methods and therapies that act through multiple biological pathways. Much of the portfolio remains in clinical or preclinical development, while Epe is the closest to routine medical use.