Daewoong Pharmaceutical said on the 22nd it signed a technology licensing agreement with TionLab Therapeutics to develop a "4-week long-acting injectable" of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Denmark's Novo Nordisk obesity drug "Wegovy." The contract value was not disclosed.
Under the deal, Daewoong Pharmaceutical secured exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, obtain approvals for, and commercialize the product worldwide except in Korea.
The in-licensed technology is a long-acting depot formulation that controls the initial release of semaglutide. A depot formulation is a long-acting dosage form designed to release a drug slowly in the body, reducing the number of doses.
The agreement is a follow-up to the "once-monthly glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) obesity drug development" strategic collaboration the two companies released on the 8th. The companies plan to develop a once-monthly semaglutide-based injection by combining TionLab's long-acting injectable platform "Quject Sphere" and Daewoong Pharmaceutical's microsphere manufacturing platform "CURE."
Quject Sphere is a platform that suppresses initial drug release through microparticle coating technology. CURE is a technology that reduces variability in drug release by producing microspheres of uniform size.