Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong Therapeutics announced on the 13th that they are developing a "microneedle patch" containing semaglutide, the key ingredient of the obesity treatment Wegovy.
The currently under-development patch adheres to the skin to deliver the medication. The patch has microneedles, which are one-third the thickness of a hair. As the needles penetrate the skin and dissolve, they release the medication. The company expressed optimism that it could overcome the disadvantages of injections, which can be painful and inconvenient for administering, and oral medications, which have low absorption efficiency.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong Therapeutics stated that in initial drug absorption tests involving 70 healthy adults, they secured results showing a bioavailability of over 80% compared to existing obesity treatment injections. This means that considering a subcutaneous injection formulation's absorption rate as 100%, over 80% of the drug from the microneedle patch was effectively absorbed into the body.
A company official noted, "Compared to existing microneedle patches containing the same ingredient, which showed a bioavailability of about 30%, we have achieved the highest concentration," adding, "Compared to the oral formulation of semaglutide, this is approximately 160 times higher." Daewoong claimed that this trial was the first test in the world to apply semaglutide microneedle patch formulation to humans.
The experiment also confirmed that blood concentration remained stable for a week. This suggests the possibility of developing a formulation that can contain high doses of medication in a single patch for weekly administration. Kang Bok-ki, CEO of Daewoong Therapeutics, explained, "This research proved the drug delivery efficiency that makes it possible to load high-dose semaglutide onto a single patch for weekly administration."
Park Seong-soo, the CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical, said, "The microneedle formulation is a promising technology that can improve medication adherence, but it has had limitations in delivering high-dose medications. This research is significant as it is the first case to overcome that technological barrier."