Yuyu Pharmaceutical develops combination dosage-form platform 'YUNICAP'... lays groundwork for commercialization

[Financial News] Yuyu Pharmaceutical has developed a platform technology that combines medicines in different dosage forms in a single capsule. After completing the setup of the production process, it plans to first apply the technology to a combination drug for benign prostatic hyperplasia and pursue commercialization in the second half of 2027.
Yuyu Pharmaceutical said on the 19th that it had completed development of its combination dosage-form platform technology, YUNICAP, and registered the trademark with the Korean Intellectual Property Office.
YUNICAP is a technology for placing different dosage forms, such as tablets, soft capsules and pellets, separately inside a single hard capsule. When multiple ingredients are made into a single tablet, existing combination drugs have faced limitations in individually realizing physical and chemical interactions between ingredients and their release characteristics. YUNICAP is designed to address these limitations by keeping each ingredient in a separate dosage form.
Various combinations are possible, including tablet with tablet, tablet with pellets, and tablet with a soft capsule, and the release profile of each ingredient can be set independently. The technology combines immediate release, in which a drug is released rapidly, and sustained release, in which it is released over a set period, in a single capsule. The company says it can mitigate stability issues by reducing direct contact between ingredients and reduce development time and manufacturing-process burdens by using existing single-ingredient dosage forms.
Yuyu Pharmaceutical has completed setup of the production process for YUNICAP-based products at its Jecheon plant. It is currently developing a combination drug for benign prostatic hyperplasia that combines dutasteride soft capsules and tamsulosin pellets. Patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia may also have other urological conditions, making it important for ease of medication use to reduce the number of medicines they take. The company plans to improve ease of use by combining different dosage forms in a single capsule.
YUNICAP could expand into combination drugs for chronic diseases, improved new drugs, and medicines for which interactions between ingredients or sensitivity to acid and moisture must be taken into account. Yuyu Pharmaceutical believes the platform could also be used to develop differentiated products for contract manufacturing and commissioned production.
Kim Gyeong-won, head of Yuyu Pharmaceutical's Central Research Institute, said, "YUNICAP is a platform technology that can be used to design a range of dosage forms and develop combination drugs. To protect the value of the technology we developed in-house, we filed for trademark registration as soon as development was completed."

[email protected] Jung Sang-hee Reporter