Daewoong Pharmaceutical has announced an agreement for co-development of a dementia treatment with Medifron, a pharmaceutical company specializing in the development of neurological treatments.

Daewoong hopes to collaborate with Medifron on the development and future sales of DBT-1339 not only within Korea but also worldwide; especially in the US, European, and Japanese markets. In addition, Daewoong has agreed to invest in Medifron bonds.

Until now, Medifron had been the sole developer of DBT-1339, which is a beta amyloid that has the capability of attacking toxins that cause harm to neural cells. There is currently much clinical research being conducted on beta amyloids as a treatment for dementia. During clinical trials performed on animals, DBT-1339’s efficacy has been proven to be safe, and it is expected that DBT-1339 can be developed further as a top competing dementia product.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate on clinical research trials and also to partner with foreign companies in further research.
Dementia is a degenerative disease in which brain cells are damaged causing cognitive and functional impairment, and there is currently no cure. There are currently 240 million sufferers of dementia throughout the world and 1.2 million sufferers within Korea alone with the numbers continuing to increase. 30 million dollars are spent on dementia treatments each year throughout the world and a hundred billion KRW is spent in Korea. In Korea the trend shows that there is a 27% yearly increase in the sales of dementia treatments.

Daewoong has recently been investing in C&D(Connection & Development) has since made movements in improving R&D for globalizing new medicinal products, natural products, biotechnology, and generic drugs. In particular, Daewoong is looking to made contributions to the surging central nervous system (CNS) treatment market by reinforcing its product pipeline. Daewoong expects to license DBT-1339 products globally making it a staple in the dementia treatment market.

A Medifron represented expressed that, ”Medifron has completed the initial phase on the development of DBT-1339, but is going to rely on Daewoong’s experience and expertise in new product development on the further clinical trials and post research projects. Through this collaboration, we hope elevate the level of pharmaceutical products developed in Korean and become a strong competitor in the global pharmaceutical market.”