Joint Development of Alzheimer’s Disease Platform
Samjin Pharmaceuticals have concluded a joint research agreement with professor Kim Ok-jun’s team at CHA Bundang Medical Center's Department of Neurology for development of a general Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) platform, which will include disease diagnosis, verification of treatments, and development of new drugs through patient-derived specimen-based stem cell research.
Under the agreement, Samjin Pharmaceutical’s central research center and CHA research team aim to develop a next generation diagnosis method that uses patient-derived stem cell and go beyond the original AD tests, like neuropsychological test, MRI, PET, genetic analysis, and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) test.
At present, global efforts to develop a new AD treatment is mostly focused on the onset mechanism through Tau protein or amyloid beta, which has led to a high failure rate of clinical trials. Samjin's research approach is expected to establish a new paradigm of AD drug development and also open up a chance to apply the results to development of a customized drug screening test.
Professor Kim Ok-jun’s team at CHA Bundang Medical Center is currently in preparation for a new stem cell clinical trial on late-stage and chronic-stage AD patients. Also, the team has been focusing on R&D of the next generation stem cells for enhancing functions through various genetic manipulation for the commercialization. Professor Kim Ok-jun said, “We plan to establish a customized drug screening method for each patient by conducting patient-derived stem cell research,” adding, “We think a new drug development will also be possible.”