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).