TOKYO: JCR Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. has initiated Phase 1 clinical trial of JR-142, a recombinant long-acting growth hormone. JCR is developing JR-142 to further upgrade and enhance its growth hormone business, one of its core businesses.[the_ad id=”31605″]JR-142 is being developed for pediatric growth hormone deficiency, and will be administered to a total of 31 healthy adult male subjects in the forthcoming trial to evaluate its safety and pharmacokinetics.
Growth hormone replacement therapy normally requires 6 to 7 self-injections a week, which invariably give rise to inconvenience, and pains on the part of the patients. To address these important issues, JCR has been focusing on research and development of a long-acting growth hormone product that can achieve sustained effects.
In non-clinical evaluations, JCR’s proprietary half-life extension technology has successfully enabled a significant extension of the JR-142 half-life. It was also demonstrated that the once weekly administration of JR-142 has equivalent effects to the standard growth hormone replacement therapy.
Currently, JCR is also developing a product for short stature homeobox-containing gene (SHOX) deficiency (development code: JR-401X), as an expanded indication of its core product, GROWJECT®, a recombinant human growth hormone. (Click here for related news release.) JCR will continue striving to provide various treatment options to meet the needs of patients suffering from growth disorders.
This announcement is expected to have a minor impact on JCR’s consolidated financial results for the year ending on March 31, 2020.
JCR is a specialty pharma engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of biopharmaceuticals and regenerative medicine with a focus on rare diseases.