A Rare Partnership

Heo Eun-cheol (left), president of GC Pharma, and Kwon Se-chang, CEO of Hanmi Pharm, pose for a photo after signing an MOU on joint research to develop rare disease treatments.

Hanmi Pharm and GC Pharma will work together to develop a new therapy for lysosomal accumulation disease (LSD), a type of rare hereditary disease.

The two companies announced on Feb. 27 that they signed an MOU on joint development of a next-generation enzyme replacement therapy for LSD at the GC Pharma's main office in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on Feb. 26.

Under the MOU, the two companies will jointly develop a treatment for LSD based on a patented material owned by Hanmi Pharm. Currently, patients with LSD are treated with the ERT therapy, which is an intravenous injection of an enzyme developed by genetic recombination technology.

The two companies will develop a new enzyme replacement therapy that dramatically improves the stability, half-lives, ease of taking, and economic burdens of current first-generation treatments.

To this end, the two companies plan to maximize synergy effects by combining their R&D capabilities through physical and human resource exchanges and research cooperation. The MOU is expected to generate synergies by combining the unique development know-how of GC Pharma which possesses Hunterase, a Hunter syndrome drug, and the unrivaled drug development capabilities of Hanmi Pharm.

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