Daewoong Pharmaceutical identifies the efficacy and safety of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment < Pharmaceutical Industry/Distribution < Pharma/Bio < Main article

Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEO Jeon Seung-ho and Lee Chang-jae) has published an international SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) paper titled ‘Europe to identify molecular mechanisms that can simultaneously explain the efficacy and safety of Bersiporocin, which is being developed as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It was announced on the 26th that it was listed in the European Molecular Biology Organization Molecular Medicine through a joint research team led by Professor Seong-Hoon Kim of Yonsei University and Professor Kwang-Yeon Hwang of Korea University. The paper title is ‘Control of fibrosis via asymmetric inhibition of prolyl-tRNA synthetase 1’.

The Journal of Molecular Medicine of the European Society of Molecular Biology is a world-renowned journal that is highly sought after by related researchers for publication and citation, with an Impact Factor (IF) of 14.005 for 2021-2022, and is a journal within the top 5% in this field.

Versiphorosin, which is being developed by Daewoong Pharmaceutical, exhibits therapeutic effects by inhibiting the activity of the PARS1 (Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase1) enzyme that promotes collagen synthesis. In the meantime, researchers from around the world have tried to treat pulmonary fibrosis by regulating the activity of PRS, but since the PARS1 enzyme is essential for life maintenance, excessive inhibition of activity can lead to side effects, making it difficult to develop new drugs. Therefore, inhibiting the PARS1 enzyme activity to a level that is safe for patients while maintaining the therapeutic effect has been a key task for new drug development.

Through this study, the company explains that versiphorosin, by binding asymmetrically to a pair of PARS1 enzymes, does not cause excessive activity inhibition, thereby minimizing the side effects of the drug while exhibiting efficacy.

“In order to make precision medicine a reality and to secure the ability to develop new drugs at a global level, it is an urgent need to find new drug targets with new mechanisms,” said Sung-Hoon Kim, a professor at Yonsei University and the corresponding author of this study. It is also significant that this study proves that the same essential enzymes can also be used as targets for new drug development.”

Park Joon-seok, head of Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s New Drug Discovery Center, said, “Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s self-developed versiphorosin has secured important research results that can explain the efficacy and safety through this study.” We hope to provide new treatment options to patients suffering from rare diseases.”