Hua Medicine
A Novel Opportunity to Treat Diabetes

Diabetes is often termed a silent killer because it hinders blood glucose homeostasis, leading to further complications in the body like deterioration of eyesight and kidney function, cause of cardiovascular and microvascular diseases. A publication by Dr. Franz Matschinsky in 2001 showed a possibility to address the core of the issue - degeneration of the pancreatic beta cells. Dr. Matschinsky gave the pharmacological basis of Glucokinase Activator (GKA), which helps glucokinase, the glucose sensor, maintain blood glucose homeostasis. The publication paved the way for further research on GKA leading to more than 100 GKA patents being published and more than 20 GKA drugs entering the clinical research phase. And the company that is leading the drug development race is Hua Medicine, whose novel drug Dorzagliatin has advanced into NDA-enabling stage.

“Hua Medicine is focused on the innovation for treating chronic diseases with clear medical needs,” says Dr. Li Chen, Founder, and CEO, Hua Medicine. “We have come up with a major breakthrough to address the underlying cause of diabetes through optimizing the glucose sensor function of the glucokinase.” The company has been working on activating glucokinase to improve the beta-cell function and came up with Dorzagliatin.

The innovative oral drug aims to improve glucokinase efficiency within the effective GKA concentration to repair the blood glucose homeostasis in patients with type 2 diabetes. Such patients have a dysfunctional glucokinase, besides to the belief of lack of insulin, they have maintained insulin secretion ability on the onset of the disease. This means that the type 2 diabetes patients have problem in sensing the blood glucose fluctuation and secrete insulin slower than the healthy person.

We have come up with a breakthrough to address the underlying cause of diabetes by optimizing the glucokinase’s glucose sensor function

Hua Medicine realized the need to address the problem of the delay in insulin secretion regulated by glucokinase. It became critically important to repair the glucokinase activity to improve the glucose sensitivity in the patient’s body, that may lead to improve insulin sensitivity.

Dorzagliatin completed two Phase III 53-week registration trial, including a phase III trial working on the Metformin failed type 2 diabetes patients. The patients were taking 1500 milligrams of Metformin a day and yet cannot control their blood glucose. The study shows that Dorzagliatin was an additional benefit to the existing therapies, when it was administered to the Metformin-tolerate patients. When provided them, dorzagliatin is able to control the blood glucose, improve the beta-cell function, and reduce insulin resistance. “In this phase III trial, we have firmly established that our drug is not only very effective in managing blood glucose in drug naïve diabetes patients but also in the Metformin-tolerate diabetes patients,” says Dr. Chen. “It also provides a benefit to improve the pancreatic beta-cell functions and increase the GLP-1 when used as a combination with the DPP-4 inhibitor.” The drug significantly reduces insulin resistance, whether used as a mono therapy or in combination with Metformin.

Hua Medicine is now developing the fixed-dose combinations of Dorzagliatin with the six different classes of oral antidiabetics to treat the whole spectrum of type 2 diabetes patients. Hua Medicine is also trying the combination with the existing nine classes of drugs to develop a more accurate treatment called personalized diabetes treatment. Artificial Intelligence has played a vital role in the development of Dorzagliatin to analyze diabetic patients into different subgroups, helping in the treatment options in personalized medicine and personalized diabetes care. The optimization of the Hua Medicine algorithm will stand a chance to further help develop a platform to engage the diabetes care from the diabetes prevention, treatment, and, most importantly, prevention for diabetes complications.