Dongkoo Bio&Pharma is expanding into the hearing health market with plans to develop a functional health supplement aimed at helping maintain hearing.
The company has made a strategic investment in Invivotech, a company specializing in auditory research, and signed an agreement securing business rights to a functional food ingredient and finished products currently under development by Invivotech.
The two companies will jointly pursue regulatory recognition of the ingredient as an individually approved functional food ingredient and develop it into commercial products. Once the ingredient receives approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), Dongkoo Bio&Pharma plans to take responsibility for manufacturing, distribution and sales.
Invivotech specializes in research into hearing loss and auditory health. Through its own clinical research center, the company has conducted basic research on hearing loss, developed disease models, identified biomarkers and carried out human clinical studies.
The candidate ingredient targeted for commercialization has completed a human study involving patients with actual hearing loss. The companies said the study confirmed key endpoints related to maintaining hearing. Based on the results, they plan to submit an application to the MFDS this month seeking recognition of the ingredient as an individually approved functional food ingredient.
South Korea’s population with hearing loss is estimated at approximately 3 million people. Demand for hearing health management is growing due to factors including population aging and increased exposure to noise. However, treatment options for fundamentally restoring hearing remain limited because hearing loss has diverse causes and forms.
Through the new business, Dongkoo Bio&Pharma plans to expand beyond its traditional pharmaceutical focus into hearing health management. The company has also broadened its opportunities in drug development through strategic investments in companies including Qurient.
Dongkoo Bio&Pharma CEO Cho Yong-jun said, “The number of people with hearing loss continues to increase, but fundamental treatment options remain limited, making this a field that requires new approaches. Together with Invivotech, which has built expertise in the auditory health field, we will work to open up a new hearing health management market.”
Founded in 1970 as Dongkoo Pharmaceutical, Dongkoo Bio&Pharma is a pharmaceutical company that built annual sales of more than $146 million based on its generic drug business. Among roughly 300 pharmaceutical companies in South Korea, the company ranks first in dermatology prescriptions, fifth in urology prescriptions and 11th in otolaryngology prescriptions when both reimbursed and non-reimbursed products are included.