Professor Ryu Wang-sik’s Research Team, Sanofi-Aventis Korea, & Institut Pasteur Korea To develop a new drug that overcomes the shortcomings of currently available Hepatitis B treatment, findings of basic research conducted by Professor Ryu Wang-sik’s team, technology obtained from advanced translational research by Institut Pasteur Korea, and know-how of professional drug development from Sanofi-Aventis Korea come together. Research director of Institut Pasteur Korea, Dr. Marc Windisch, said, “This is a representative case of the intricate combination of academic-industrial-research, which is the standard procedure for modern new drug development. The results of Professor Ryu’s basic research, technology of Institut Pasteur Korea’s technology from high translational research, and Sanofi-Aventis Korea construct an ideal system.” The new drug candidates acquired by Institut Pasteur Korea will be commercialized into new medicine via the optimization and development with Sanofi-Aventis Korea’s partnership. Mr. Frank Chang, Vice-Chairman and Asia-Pacific R&D Manager, said, “The translational research technology by Institut Pasteur Korea will provide the opportunity to accelerate research on innovative drug development and to identify new mechanisms to eliminate Hepatitis B, which constitutes 38% of the number of deaths among Korean cancer patients.” Hepatitis B virus replicates through the reverse transcription of DNA from RNA. Most of the commercial treatments for Hepatitis B are composed of nucleoside drugs that hamper this reverse transcription. Long-period administration thus produces resistant viruses that entail failure of treatment. As a breakthrough to this problem, Institut Pasteur Korea’s translational research suggest an innovative approach: blocking the virus replication by inhibiting the genome packaging process, which is the earlier stage of reverse transcription in Hepatitis B. Professor Ryu said, “This approach will discover a new treatment that contains a different target than the one in currently used nucleoside drugs. The new treatment will also enable a merge of administration with conventional treatment, opening the pathway towards complete recovery of chronic Hepatitis B.”