(Health Korea News / Lee Chung-man) Competition for a dementia combination drug combining donepezil (product name: ‘Aricept’) and memantine (product name: ‘Ebixa’) appears to be intensifying.
On the 23rd, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved six combination drugs of donepezil and memantine as prescription drugs. ▲Hutex Korea Pharmaceuticals ‘Alzcomp Tablets’ ▲ Ildong Pharmaceuticals ‘Memancept Tablets’ ▲ Hwanin Pharmaceuticals ‘Domencia Tablets’ ▲ Youngjin Pharmaceuticals ‘Dimenduo Tablets’ ▲ Korea Pharmaceuticals ‘Neurocept Duo Tablets’ ▲ Alico Pharmaceuticals ‘Alceptin Duo Tablets’ ‘Jeong’ is that.
Donepezil works by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine in the brain. It is designed to treat the disease by reducing the acetylcholine deficiency that often occurs in Alzheimer’s patients. The original is ‘Aricept’ by Eisai of Japan, and the domestic copyright is held by Handok.
Memantine is an N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist. Excessive activation of NMDA receptors causes excessive influx of calcium ions, causing neuronal cell toxicity, and memantine is a mechanism that reduces neuronal damage by inhibiting this. The original is Lundbeck’s ‘Ebixa’.
Therefore, the donepezil + memantine combination drug can treat Alzheimer’s more effectively through different mechanisms.
As the size of the domestic dementia treatment market continues to grow, the combination drug is emerging as a new cash cow for domestic pharmaceutical companies. According to UBIST, a market research company, the size of the domestic dementia treatment market is estimated at approximately 340 billion won in 2022. It is expected to reach 360 billion won by 2025.
For reference, the market size of individual drugs recorded prescription sales of 86.1 billion won for donepezil and 16.9 billion won for memantine in 2021, based on UBIST.
Based on this outlook, Hyundai Pharmaceuticals was the first to take the initiative in developing a donepezil + memantine combination drug. This company obtained approval for ‘DM Duo Tablet’ (ingredient name: donepezil + memantine) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in October of this year.
With the addition of six items with this approval, the donepezil + memantine combination drug market was reorganized into a competitive landscape between seven companies in just two months. However, since the combination drug was developed jointly by 7 companies and supervised by Hyundai Pharmaceuticals, the competitive structure was already expected.
Additional competitors include Chong Kun Dang. In February 2019, Chong Kun Dang received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for a phase 1 clinical trial (IND) for its donepezil + memantine combination drug candidate ‘CKD-355’. It is currently over. Therefore, if Chong Kun Dang receives product approval, market competition is expected to take on a new structure.
In addition to this, if we add the clinical trials being conducted under the project name, the number is likely to be even greater.
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