April 26, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s biopharmaceutical company GemVax & Kael has set the stage for its Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate to enter global clinical trials next year.

The firm said on March 28 it forged a partnership with Parexel, a US-based contract research firm to cooperate in conducting clinical studies of GV1001. 

“We aim to get US approval to initiate clinical trials in early 2018,” GemVax & Kael CEO Song Hyung-gon said.

GV1001 is designed to block the accumulation of Tau protein and beta amyloid, which are known as key drivers of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

In February, the Korean firm also reached an agreement with a German firm Vector that the latter will produce the Alzheimer’s disease treatment to be used in clinical studies.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia worldwide, affecting millions of patients, with no therapeutic options available to date.

Biogen is the single contender to bring a new Alzheimer’s drug to the market as preliminary clinical trials with a small group of patients suggest that its drug aducanumab may be effective.

In the last months, there have been two failures in once-promising Alzheimer’s disease trials by Eli Lilly and Merck.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)