Researchers to share dementia drug with medical company

A Gyeongsang National University research team yesterday made an agreement with local pharmaceutical company Korea Pharma to transfer its technology for producing a natural protein that reduces symptoms of dementia.

The technology is already patented in 30 countries and Korea. Under the agreement, the company will develop a next-generation dementia drug to be commercialized in the next five years, that will effectively treat for kinds of dementia including Alzheimer’s and senile dementia.

According to Kim Myeong-ok, the team’s lead researcher and a professor of neurobiology and abnormal differentiation of the brain, the new drug is the first natural protein that deters regression of a patient’s brain nerve cells, which can treat symptoms and stop the disease’s progress.