An Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) project “Repeat Dose Toxicity Studies to Confirm the Safety of Novel TTCA Antitubercular Agent” has been selected for the RIGHT Fund Technical Accelerator Award this year.

The IPK is embarking on the development of an innovative drug against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) with funding support from the Research Investment for Global Health Technology Fund (RIGHT Fund).

The RIGHT Fund, a research funding agency established through Public-Private Partnership between the Government of Korea, Korean life science companies, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is dedicated to support R&D projects aimed at alleviating the burdens of infectious diseases in developing countries.

The project is led by Dr. Inhee Choi, Head of Medicinal Chemistry of IPK, and aims to advance the development of TTCA compound, an IPK’s TB drug candidate. Through the project, Dr. Choi and her team will validate the safety of TTCA through repeated dose in vivo toxicity studies of TTCA in animal models with rat and beagle dogs for the next 12 months. 

TTCA has been in IPK’s TB drug development pipeline since initially identified to have a potent anti-TB efficacy through the in-house image-based screening in 2013. Notably, TTCA showed strong efficacy regardless of drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cell experiments. From 2018 to 2020, researchers of Medicinal Chemistry successfully completed the lead optimization study of TTCA with support from the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF). 

 

Dr. Choi said, “TB is an unmet global health issue that infected about 10 million people, mostly in developing countries of Africa and Asia, in 2019, and a new treatment that can effectively tackle resistant TB is urgently needed.” “I am thrilled for the opportunity supported by the RIGHT Fund to study the in vivo toxicity of TTCA and hope our efforts will lead to the successful development of new TB drug and contribute to relieving the global burden,” added Dr. Choi.

* About RIGHT Fund (Research Investment for Global Health Technology Fund) The RIGHT Fund is a global health research funding agency in South Korea through public-private-partnership between the Korean government (Ministry of Health and Welfare), Korean life science companies (SK Bioscience, LG Chem, GC Pharma, Chong Kun Dang Pharm, Genexine, KT, Bioneer, EuBiologics, and SD BIOSENSOR), and international funder (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). The Fund’s mission is to deliver tangible global health solutions by leveraging intellectual and technical strengths of Korea to alleviate the burdens of infectious diseases of developing countries in areas of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and digital health technology. (https://rightfund.org)