HanAll Biopharma and Daewoong Pharmaceutical have agreed to jointly develop a new drug to treat dry eye syndrome — a common eye condition in which insufficient tears are made to lubricate the eye.

Under the agreement signed Monday, the two firms are set to develop HL036, a promising dry eye syndrome drug candidate developed by HanAll. 

HL036 is a biobetter — an improved version of an existing biopharmaceutical treatment — which consists of anti-TNF antibodies that have been reformulated for an eye-drop format and to have a longer-lasting effect. HL036 is currently undergoing phase I clinical trials in Korea.

Anti-TNF antibodies are currently used to treat various inflammatory diseases, and are typically delivered by injection.

The two companies have agreed to equally split the costs and profits from the new drug. HanAll will also receive 7.8 billion won in technology transfer fees from Daewoong.

“HanAll’s long-running R&D expertise combined with Daewoong’s global sales networks will create new synergies for the new drug’s success,” said a HanAll Biopharma official.

The prevalence of dry eye syndrome around the world has been growing, pushing companies in Korea and elsewhere to produce better drugs to treat it.

Market analyst Technavio forecasts that the global market for dry eye syndrome will grow annually by 4.75 percent from 2014 until 2019.

The number of dry eye syndrome patients in Korea also doubled from 970,000 people in 2004 to 2.14 million people in 2014, according to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service.

Allergan’s Restasis is currently the top-selling drug globally, with Ireland-based Shire soon expected to shake up the market with its new drug Lifitegrast upon approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Locally, Samjin Pharmaceutical is pursuing clinical research into developing an oral-type dry eye therapy, while Gtree Pharmaceuticals is developing a new drug based on the thymosin beta-4 peptide.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical recently partnered with California-based Allegro Opthalmics to develop a range of ophthalmic treatments including those for dry eye syndrome.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)