• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.146-153
• /
• 2018

Objective: Multi-regional clinical trials have been widely used for accelerating global drug development by multinational pharmaceutical companies. In this study, we aimed to review and analyze the international trends in regulations and guidelines on multi-regional clinical trials by regulatory authorities and international organizations, such as International Conference on Harmonisation, for referring to policies, including development of domestic guidelines for multi-regional clinical trials. Methods: The policies, regulations, and guidelines published by the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (Japan), and China Food and Drug Administration were searched, and the International Conference on Harmonisation E17 draft guideline was reviewed. Results: The regulatory authorities in developed countries have developed and implemented regulations and guidelines on multi-regional clinical trials to promote simultaneous global drug development and evaluate the regional differences in drug safety and efficacy. International Conference on Harmonisation developed the draft guideline for planning/designing of multi-regional clinical trials in 2016, which recommends the general principles for strategy-related issues and design of multi-regional clinical trials, and for protocol-related issues, such as consideration of regional variability, subject selection, dose selection, endpoints, comparators, overall sample size, allocation to regions, collecting information on efficacy and safety, and statistical analysis. Conclusion: It is important to understand the international regulatory requirements for designing and planning of multi-regional clinical trials for global drug development. Moreover, it is necessary to prepare multi-regional clinical trial guidelines in accordance with the Korean regulation for clinical trials and drug administration.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.121-133
• /
• 2021

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are drawing much interest due to its great potential to be one of the important options in cancer treatments. ADCs are acting like a magic bullet which delivers cytotoxic drugs specifically to cancerous cells throughout the body, thus attacks these cells, while not harming healthy cells. ADCs are complex molecules that are composed of an antibody having targeting capability and linked-payload or cytotoxic drug killing cancerous cells. The key factors of the success in the development of ADC are selection of appropriate antibody, cytotoxic payload and linker for conjugation. Recently there was considerable progress in ADCs development, and a large number of ADCs gained US FDA approval. About 80 new ADCs are under active clinical studies. In this review we present a brief introduction of the US-FDA approved ADCs and global situation in the clinical studies of ADC pipelines. We address an overview on each component of an ADC design such as target antigens, payloads, linkers, conjugation methods, drug antibody ratio. In addition, we discuss on the trend of ADC market where global big pharmas and domestic biopharmaceutical companies are competing to develop safer and more effective ADCs.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 2017

Natural product drugs, or botanical drugs, are drugs composed of natural substances which have constituents with healthenhancing or medicinal activities. In Korea, government-led projects brought attention to botanical drugs invigorating domestic botanical drug industry. Foreign markets, as well, are growing bigger as the significance of botanical drugs stood out. To follow along with the tendency, Korea puts a lot of effort on developing botanical drugs suitable for global market. However, standards for approving drug sales vary by countries. And also, thorough standardization, certification, clinical studies and data of these will be required as well as data confirming safety and effectiveness. Meanwhile, as an international exchange in botanical drug market continues, the importance of plant resources was emphasized. Thus countries' ownership of domestic natural resources became vital. Not only establishing a systematic method to secure domestic plant resources, but also cooperation with other countries on sharing natural resources is essential to procure natural resources effectively. Korea started to show visible results with botanical drugs, and asthma/COPD treatment made out of speedwell is one example. Sufficient investment and government's active support for basic infrastructure for global botanical drugs will bring Korea to much higher level of botanical drug development.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.38-46
• /
• 2023

The value of living a long and healthy life without suffering has increased owing to aging populations, transition to welfare societies, and global interest in health deriving from the novel coronavirus disease pandemic. New drug development has gained attention as both a tool to improve the quality of life and high-value market, with blockbuster drugs potentially generating over 10 billion dollars in annual revenue. However, for newly discovered substances to be used as drugs, various properties must be verified over a long period in a time-consuming and costly process. Recently, the development of artificial intelligence technologies, such as deep and reinforcement learning, has led to significant changes in drug development by enabling the effective identification of drug candidates that satisfy desired properties. We explore and discuss trends in artificial intelligence for de novo drug design.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.299-310
• /
• 2023

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex disorder characterized by the accumulation of fat in the liver in the absence of excessive alcohol consumption. It is one of the most common liver diseases worldwide, affecting approximately 25% of the global population. It is closely associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Moreover, NAFLD can progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which can cause liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, there are no approved drugs for the treatment of NAFLD. Therefore, the development of effective drugs is essential for NAFLD treatment. In this article, we discuss the experimental models and novel therapeutic targets for NAFLD. Additionally, we propose new strategies for the development of drugs for NAFLD.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.41-56
• /
• 2021

New drug discovery and development research enable clinical treatment that saves human life and improves the quality of life, but the possibility of success with new drugs is significantly low despite a long time of 14 to 16 years and a large investment of 2 to 3 trillion won in traditional methods. As artificial intelligence is expected to radically change the new drug development paradigm, artificial intelligence new drug discovery and development projects are underway in various forms of collaboration, such as joint research between global pharmaceutical companies and IT companies, and government-private consortiums. This study uses the TOE framework and the Value-based Adoption Model, and the technical, organizational, and environmental factors that should be considered for the acceptance of AI technology at the level of the new drug research organization are the value of artificial intelligence technology. By analyzing the explanatory power of the relationship between perception and intention to use, it is intended to derive practical implications. Therefore, in this work, we present a research model in which technical, organizational, and environmental factors affecting the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies are mediated by strategic value recognition that takes into account all factors of benefit and sacrifice. Empirical analysis shows that usefulness, technicality, and innovativeness have significantly affected the perceived value of AI drug development systems, and that social influence and technology support infrastructure have significant impact on AI Drug Discovery and Development systems.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.96-102
• /
• 2009

Objectives: Traditional Korean herbal formulae are composed of multiple medicinal plants. This situation of multiple-ingredient mixtures has been considered as a major obstacle to new drug development using herbal formulae in the world market, despite the effectiveness of such mixtures. This study reviewed Liv-52 as a representative model of successful drug development using a multiple-herb mixture. Methods: All articles for Liv-52 were collected from the PubMed database. The history, composition of Liv-52, its pharmaceutical efficacy and mechanisms, and data from clinical studies including its market size were analyzed. Results: Liv-52 is composed of seven herbal plants and it is the best known in Ayurvedic medicine for treating liver disorders. Since its 1955 introduction, forty four international papers have been published based on pre-clinical and clinical trials. The efficacy and mechanisms of Liv-52 were intensively studied. Currently, Liv-52 is one of the top-selling products, with over 10 million dollars sales annually, in the world market. Conclusions: These results indicate that Korean herbal formulae could be new global drugs if scientific evidence for efficacy and standardization are produced via literature researches.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Malaria has been a major global health problem in recent times with increasing mortality. Current treatment methods include parasiticidal drugs and vaccinations. However, resistance among malarial parasites to the existing drugs has emerged as a significant area of concern in anti-malarial drug design. Researchers are now desperately looking for new targets to develop anti-malarials drug which is more target specific. Malarial parasites harbor a plastid-like organelle known as the 'apicoplast', which is thought to provide an exciting new outlook for the development of drugs to be used against the parasite. This review elaborates on the current state of development of novel compounds targeted againstemerging malaria parasites. Methods: The apicoplast, originates by an endosymbiotic process, contains a range of metabolic pathways and housekeeping processes that differ from the host body and thereby presents ideal strategies for anti-malarial drug therapy. Drugs are designed by targeting the unique mechanism of the apicoplasts genetic machinery. Several anabolic and catabolic processes, like fatty acid, isopenetyl diphosphate and heme synthess in this organelle, have also been targeted by drugs. Results: Apicoplasts offer exciting opportunities for the development of malarial treatment specific drugs have been found to act by disrupting this organelle's function, which wouldimpede the survival of the parasite. Conclusion: Recent advanced drugs, their modes of action, and their advantages in the treatment of malaria by using apicoplasts as a target are discussed in this review which thought to be very useful in desigining anti-malarial drugs. Targetting the genetic machinery of apicoplast shows a great advantange regarding anti-malarial drug design. Critical knowledge of these new drugs would give a healthier understanding for deciphering the mechanism of action of anti-malarial drugs when targeting apicoplasts to overcome drug resistance.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.111-119
• /
• 2015

BACKGROUND: Ethychlozate (ECZ) is a plant growth regulator of synthetic auxin for agricultural commodities (ACs). Accurate and sensitive method to determine ECZ in diverse ACs on global official purpose is required to legal residue regulation. As the current official method is confined to the limited type of crops with poor validation, this study was conducted to improve and extend the ECZ method using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in all the registered crops with method verification. METHODS AND RESULTS: ECZ and its acidic metabolite (ECZA) were both extracted from acidified samples with acetone and briefly purified by dichloromethane partition. ECZ was hydrolyzed to form ECZA and the combined ECZA was finally purified by ion-associated partition including hexane-washing. The instrumental quantitation was performed using HPLC/ FLD under ion-suppression of ECZA with no interference by sample co-extractives. The average recoveries of intra- and inter-day experiment ranged from 82.0 to 105.2% and 81.7 to 102.8%, respectively. The repeatability and reproducibility for intra- and inter-day measurements expressed as a relative standard deviation was less than 8.7% and 7.4%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Established analytical method for ECZ residue in ACs was applicable to the nation-wide pesticide residues monitoring program with the acceptable level of sensitivity, repeatability and reproducibility.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.28 no.11
• /
• pp.1771-1781
• /
• 2018

The emergence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms, as well as fungal infectious diseases that further threaten health, especially in immunodeficient populations, is a major global problem. The development of new antifungal agents in clinical trials is inferior to the incidence of drug resistance, and the available antifungal agents are restricted. Their mechanisms aim at certain characteristics of the fungus in order to avoid biological similarities with the host. Synthesis of the cell wall and ergosterol are mainly targeted in clinical use. The need for new approaches to antifungal therapeutic agents or development alternatives has increased. This review explores new perspectives on mechanisms to effectively combat fungal infections and effective antifungal activity. The clinical drug have a common feature that ultimately causes caspase-dependent cell death. The drugs-induced cell death pathway is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including mitochondrial membrane depolarization and cytochrome c release. This mechanism of action also reveals antimicrobial peptides, the primary effector molecules of innate systems, to highlight new alternatives. Furthermore, drug combination therapy is suggested as another strategy to combat fungal infection. The proposal for a new approach to antifungal agents is not only important from a basic scientific point of view, but will also assist in the selection of molecules for combination therapy.