Breakthrough botanical treatment of hepatitis B announced by ITRI :: BiotechEast - Taiwan and China biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ^¤å½s×, ^¤å×§ï ::

(BiotechEast staff)

21 January, 2005
At a press event held in Taipei on Thursday, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) announced that its newly-developed lead compound with anti-hepatitis B properties, BMEC 101, is ready for IND submission in the US.

Representatives of ITRI and Sunco Ink celebrate at a press event announcing ITRI's herbal-medicine hepatitis B breakthrough, held in Taipei, January 20, 2005.

ITRI also announced that it had entered into a tech transfer agreement with Taichung-based chemical company Sunco Ink Co., Ltd., for the compound’s further development and subsequent clinical trials.

The press conference was held at the newly-completed Taipei 101 building, the world’s tallest, and was hosted by the general director of BMEC, Dr. Michael Su, with representatives from both Sunco and ITRI in attendance.

BMEC 10, a mixed compound formulation, has been found to inhibit the hepatitis B virus’s secreted proteins in transfected HepG2. In animal studies, the compound has exhibited low side effects and no reported toxic reactions.

Hepatitis B-related diseases currently kill around 300,000 people a year. Out of 350 million carriers of hepatitis B worldwide, 120 million are from China and Taiwan. Current medicinal treatments of hepatitis B, such as Interferon and Laminvudine are hampered by low effectiveness, side effects and immunity resistance.

The development of this breakthrough herbal medicine is the result of BMEC research with support of the Department of Industrial Technology, a division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

In recent years BMEC has been aggressively upgrading its herbal medicine research and production facilities, having already set up a cGMP Pilot Plan for herbal medicine R&D, as well as a technology platform for DNA identification for herbal medicine raw material.

Sunco Inc. specializes in manufacturing resins, but has been expanding in recent years to cover the biotechnology and fine chemistry sectors.

Photo provided by ITRI

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