[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced on the 31st that it will develop "Efeglenate" as a customized contingency product for Koreans, which is a candidate substance for diabetes treatment affiliated with GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1), which was returned after transferring technology to Sanofi. It seems that it is marketable if it is developed as an obesity treatment for Korean obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced on the same day that it will change its indication to release the GLP-1-like receptor "epigenate," which has been developed as a treatment for metabolic diseases, as an obesity treatment. Hanmi Pharmaceutical submitted an application for clinical trial plan (IND) for phase 3 clinical trials to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the 28th.

Efpeglenatide is a substance that Hanmi Pharmaceutical transferred its technology to Sanofi in 2015. At that time, it was noted for a total deposit of up to 5 trillion won, but Sanofi returned the technology in June 2020, five years after the previous one. Sanofi cited the reason for the technology return as a change in its business plan at the time, but it was affected by NovonoDisk's first release of a similar line of obesity treatment at the time, according to the analysis.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical concluded that Efpeglenatide can be developed as a Korean customized GLP-1′ by optimizing the standard for Korean obesity (BMI 25㎏/㎡). Most GLP-1 obesity drugs released by global pharmaceutical companies are tailored to Western highly obese patients.

Since signing a contract with Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Sanofi has conducted five global clinical trials on more than 6,000 metabolic patients. In June 2021, the year after the return of the technology, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) verbally announced its clinical results and published the results of its study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Hanmi Pharmaceutical believes that if the price of Korean obesity drugs using Efpeglenatide is lowered, there is a good chance. It is generally expensive and it is not known when the GLP-1 Vival released by global pharmaceutical companies will be released in the Korean market due to a lack of supply.

 

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