April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Bukwang Pharmaceutical said on April 9 that it has started patient dosing for its pivotal phase 3 clinical trials of schizophrenia therapy Lurasidone that it licensed from a Japanese drug maker last year.

Developed by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Lurasidone is designed as a treatment for schizophrenia and depressive episodes associated with bipolar depression both as monotherapy and as adjunctive therapy with lithium or valproate.

“We plan to wrap up clinical studies in the first half of 2019 and complete reports on results in the latter half,” the company said in a statement.

In a bid to strengthen its central nervous system disease product portfolio, the Korean company bought a license to develop and commercialize the drug in Korea in April 2017.

“Lurasidone has potential to generate hundreds of millions of won in annual sales. With the product, we will make our second leap forward in sales,” Bukwang said.

According to the Seoul-based company, Lurasidone raked in some 2 trillion won (US$1.87 billion) from April 2015 to December 2016, in the North America market and has been approved in the EU, Switzerland, Australia, Taiwan, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.

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