S. Korea's JW Pharma to use zebrafish in developing drugs

JW Pharmaceutical will use the zebrafish to develop new drugs and expand indications of its drug candidates.

To expedite the process, the South Korean drug developer has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Zefit, a domestic non-clinical trial institute that specializes in zebrafish models.

Zefit will provide disease-specific zebrafish models using gene editing technology and a drug screening platform.

Zebrafish, a tropical fish species whose genetic structure is more than 80 percent similar to humans, is increasingly being used as a non-clinical intermediary research model.

Zebrafish can replace mammalian experiments, according to Zefit.

Conducting experiments with zebrafish can bring down costs to about one-tenth of those for mammals.

JW Pharmaceutica plans to use zebrafish to bridge the gap between non-clinical and clinical research.

Zebrafish experiments can be 91 percent similar to those conducted with mammals.

According to Shin Jun-nyeong, CEO of Zefit, Interest in zebrafish is increasing among regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).