GC Pharma, Yuhan to Jointly Develop Rare Disease Drugs

South Korea’s two largest pharmaceutical companies have agreed to cooperate on developing treatments for rare diseases.

GC Pharma, formerly known as Green Cross Corporation, and Yuhan Corporation announced on June 19 that the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on joint research and development, including a treatment for Gaucher disease, on June 18.

This is the first MOU on joint drug research and development signed between GC Pharma, which has experience in developing bio drugs, and Yuhan, which leads the domestic compound synthetic drug market.

Under the agreement, the two companies will first work together to develop a next-generation oral Gaucher disease treatment, which can improve medication convenience and efficacy in brain symptoms.

Gaucher disease is a rare hereditary disease caused by an enzyme deficiency that causes liver and spleen enlargement, anemia, and platelet loss. There are only 70 patients in South Korea and 6,500 globally.

The companies are highly likely to expand the scope of cooperation from discovering candidate substance, non-clinical trials, and clinical development in the future.