Yungjin Pharm - develops COPD and rheumatoid arthritis medicine

Yungjin Pharm - develops COPD and rheumatoid arthritis medicine
http://www.yungjin.co.kr
http://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20160428000982


COPD is an abbreviation for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and a category of a disease that blocks the respiratory tract causing lower the speed of the air in the lungs without any other pulmonary diseases or cardiac diseases. As COPD gets more severe, the number of pulmonary alveoli under the terminal bronchiole increases and pulmonary alveoli wall breaks, which is called pulmonary emphysema. We use the term COPD when we can't discriminate the two symptoms.

It is known that more than 90% of the causes of COPD are due to smoking. Air pollution, congenital diseases, and respiratory infections also account for the remaining 10%. COPD is the world's 4th disease and 7th disease in Korea in terms of death rate. The world market capitalization for COPD has been estimated to reach 26.9 billion USD (31.5 trillion KRW) by 2017.
http://www.medgadget.com/2015/06/asthma-and-copd-drug-market-global-industry-analysis-market-size-share-trends-growth-and-forecasts-2010-2017.html

Rheumatoid arthritis is known to occur in around 0.8% of the adult population. There is no way to prevent or cure this disease, but we can slow down the progress. The global market for rheumatoid arthritis medicine is expected to reach 80 billion USD (93.9 trillion KRW) by 2020.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rheumatoid-arthritis-market-to-2020---a-crowded-market-characterized-by-modest-growth-300059888.html

Below is the development schedule for COPD and rheumatoid arthritis medicine of Yungjin Pharm.

Development Research for COPD medicine (YPL-001)
- US clinical IND approval (2013. 04)
- Completed US Phase 1 clinical trial (SAD) (2013. 07)
- Completed US Phase 1 clinical trial (MAD) (2014. 02)
- Completed US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) US SAB meeting (2014. 01)
- US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) approval (2014. 10)
- Registration of US clinical trial (PoC) examination information (ClinicalTrials.gov, 2014. 10)
- Completed of Kick-off-meeting of US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) (2014, 10)
- Completed US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) IRB approval (2014. 12, 2015 02)
- US Phase 2 clinical trials (PoC) Selected as a new phase drug development project (2015. 01; 3.7 billion KRW)
- US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) clinical initiation meeting (2015 03)
- US Phase 2 clinical trial (PoC) is in progress (2016 04 - present)

Development Research for rheumatoid arthritis medicine (YRA-1909)
- Natural product research to push into the US market (2014. 12 - 2019. 11, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy: 5 years 3.5 billion KRW)
- Completed mass production study
- Secured GAP mass cultivation site (3,300 square meter) and cultivation: Jangheung-gun, Jeollanam-do
- Research on ensuring equality of raw materials by origin
- Ingredient research (separation, purification etc.)
- Identification of three new ingredients (preparing for patent application)
- selected government task by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (2014 04)
- Production of raw materials and nonclinical toxicity test (2015 02 - present)
- Domestic Phase 2 clinical trial approval (2015.12) and preparations to proceed (present)


Competitive Products for COPD medicine

As you can see the above, most of the treatments are required to be inhaled. The problem is that when the drug is inhaled, the drug delivery to the deep lungs is not very successful. Drug efficacy is only about relieving symptoms.

In contrast, COPD medicine from Yungjin Pharm is a natural-based treatment extracted from Mountain spike speedwell so that patients can easily take it. This medicine has the advantage that the drug acts on the entire lung effectively and aims to function as a cure agent instead of a symptom reliever.


Competitive products for rheumatoid arthritis
You should inject new rheumatoid drugs below as you can read.
- Etanercept: 25 mg by subcutaneous injection twice a week
- Infliximab: 3 to 5 mg / kg by intravenous injection at 0, 2, 6 week of administraton and every 2 months thereafter
- Adilmumap: 40 mg by subcutaneous injection once every two weeks

On the other hand, YRA-1909 from Yongjin Pharm is a new drug based on a naturally extracted from the leaves of Stauntonia hexaphylla (Thunb) Decne. Of course, the effect is expected to be better than Tofacitinib or Etanercept.


If you are a doctor or a patient, which medicine would you prescribe or take?