Daewoong Pharmaceutical enters into new drug candidate ‘BBT-401’ joint development and technology transfer contract with Bridgebio

Daewoong Pharmaceutical enters into new drug candidate ‘BBT-401’ joint development and technology transfer contract with Bridgebio - Daewoong Pharmaceutical accelerates new drug development ‘for the first time in the affiliation’ by introducing Pellino-1 blocker BBT-401 from Bridgebio - Added a new pipeline including a $ 40 million contract and inflammatory disease including ulcerative colitis Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEO Sengho Jeon) started open collaboration with a Korean bio venture company after adopting its autoimmune disease candidate technology. On Dec. 19, Daewoong Pharmaceutical announced that it signed a contract with Bridgebio on ‘adoption of technical license and production and sales right’ on BBT-401, the new drug candidate, an inflammatory disease treatment, including ulcerative colitis. Through this contract, the two parties will jointly conduct clinical development for approval of BBT-401. With this contract, Daewoong Pharmaceutical secured exclusive global production / supply right for BBT-401 to 22 regions including Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asia and Daewoong strategically invested in Bridgebio. For the technology transfer, Bridgebio will be receiving approximately $ 40 million by milestone from Daewoong Pharmaceutical, provided that it reaches objectives including deposit, development and permit. BBT-401 is a first-in-class candidate and is drawing attention as it combines with Pellino-1, a protein which handles delivery of immune signaling, and inhibits immune response by blocking inflammation signal delivery in inflammatory diseases including ulcerative colitis and may overcome the shortcomings of existing drugs. It successfully completed the phase 1 of the clinical study, which tests drug safety and tolerability and phase 2 of the study is planned to begin in the US in the US within this year. Based on this contract, both companies plan to start clinical study in the Asian region. With this contract, Daewoong Pharmaceutical secured ulcerative colitis treatment lineup for the Asian market, including Korea, China and Japan, following Asacol, a drug for mild ulcerative colitis, and is expecting to expand market occupancy in ulcerative colitis. Moreover, based on the long experience in development and production of drugs for digestive diseases, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is also expecting to produce optimized drugs for BBT-401 and supply the globe. CEO Sengho Jeon said, “Through this joint research effort and technology transfer, we plan to develop world’s first drug that will treat inflammatory diseases such as ulcerative colitis that were difficult to deal with. Daewoong Pharmaceutical will take up other open collaboration projects with corporations domestic and foreign, and strive to develop innovative new drugs.” Jeonggyu Lee, President of Bridgebio, said, “New drug candidate BBT-401, which came to fruition after a domestic industry-academy-industry collaboration, is expected to enter global ulcerative colitis treatment market, more quickly and more extensively, through this joint development effort with Daewoong Pharmaceutical. I hope that this highly effective new drug is quickly known to many ulcerative colitis patients around the world, and we will exert our most efforts in the joint development.” Along with Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory colitis where an ulcer is made at the end of large intestine due to chronic inflammation causing hematochezia and diarrhea. Global ulcerative colitis market is approximately 6 trillion won in 2016 and is expected to grow to 7.5 trillion won by 2026. Incidence rate of ulcerative colitis is higher in advanced countries like the US, EU and Japan. Its domestic incidence rate is expected to grow, therefore its market to grow as well, as our diet is more and more becoming Westernized. #  #  # [Photo] On Dec. 18, Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Bridgebio signed a contract for ‘adoption of technical license and production and sales right” on BBT-401, the new drug candidate for ulcerative colitis (left: Sengho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical; right: Jeonggyu Lee, President of Bridgebio)

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