Daewoong Pharmaceutical Publishes Research Outcomes of Autoimmune Disease Candidate DWP213388 in the American Society of Hematology

Daewoong Pharmaceutical Publishes Research Outcomes of Autoimmune Disease Candidate DWP213388 in the American Society of Hematology - Confirmation of effect on improving medical condition and survival rate for the rare and incurable graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) - Expected as the next-generation autoimmune disease drug that minimizes the side effect of viral infection due to immunosuppression - Focus on developing a first-in-class global drug with the aim of starting a clinical trial by the end of 2020 Daewoong Pharmaceutical(Daewoong, CEO Sengho Jeon) unveiled the research outcomes of autoimmune disease candidate DWP213388 for the first time in the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting held on Dec. 9 (local time), which garnered much attention. Daewoong’s autoimmune disease candidate DWP213388 is an oral drug with the mechanism that selectively inhibits interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase (ITK) and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), which are targets involved in the activation of immune cells (T and B cells). Unlike traditional drugs that inhibit T and B cells, DWP213388, which targets both ITK and BTK, boasts being able to target and inhibit both T and B cells as a first-in-class drug. For graft versus host disease (GvHD), when a patient receives a bone marrow transplant, T cells in the bone marrow, which is transplanted to existing somatic cells, are not accepted normally but activated excessively. Activated T cells attack existing cells, causing a disease. The excessive activation of T cells is known as a major cause for early acute GvHD, and late GvHD is known to be caused by tissue injury due to the activation of not just T cells but also B cells. DWP213388 was confirmed to effectively inhibit both T and B cells in a cell experiment, and a GvHD mouse experiment showed that it effectively inhibited the symptom at the dose of 10 mg/kg and improved the survival rate. Furthermore, it showed efficacy on rheumatoid arthritis, one of the most well-known autoimmune diseases, at one fortieth of the dose of conventional drugs and additionally protected bones from injury. In particular, as an animal model experiment on animals infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) confirmed that virus death occurs normally after the administration of DWP213388, it garnered expectations from participants that DWP213388 not only improves a disease condition but also minimize the side effect of viral infection, which is concerning in immunosuppressants. Joon Seok Park, manager of Daewoong’s New Drug Center, said, “With this presentation of the research outcomes of DWP213388, we can confirm much interest and expectation from stakeholders in the global healthcare industry. With the aim of starting a clinical trial by the end of 2020, we will contribute to improving the quality of life by developing a global drug for GvHD and autoimmune disease patients, for whom there is a lack of effective drugs.” Meanwhile, the global autoimmune drug market is worth KRW 45 trillion as of 2017 and expected to reach KRW 61 trillion by 2025. The global market for rare incurable GvHD is KRW 500 billion as of 2018 and expected to continue to grow to KRW 650 billion by 2023. #   #   # ​​​​​​​ [Photograph description] At the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting held on Dec. 9, an official from Daewoong explains the research outcomes of the next-generation autoimmune disease candidate DWP213388 in a poster presentation.

The release as fetched from its publisher. daewoong.co.kr ↗