April 26, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Ildong Pharmaceutical said on April 2 that its drug candidate is likely to be developed as an eye drop version of Novartis’ best-selling visual impairment therapy Lucentis, currently in an injectable form.

Ildong’s preclinical drug IDB0062 is designed to be a so-called biobetter, improved versions of the approved biopharmaceuticals, of Lucentis, which generated revenue of US$3.8 billion in 2017. 

“Given that IDB0062 showed superior clinical efficacy and drug uptake efficiency than Lucentis in vivo animal testing, it could be developed as a more convenient eye drop product as well as an injection version,” the company said.

Ildong has filed patents involving IDB0062 in Korea, China, Japan, the EU and the US and plans to pursue licensing deals depending on the progress of the drug development. The company plans to initiate human clinical studies within this year.

Offering the eye therapy in self-administered drops could give IDB0062 an edge over Lucentis as many patients require up to 12 injections into their eyes per year. Ildong said it applied a cell-penetrating antibody technology from Ajou University to the potential drug to enhance its efficacy and resolve resistance issues. It also modified the protein of Lucentis to increase production efficiency.



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