OliX Pharmaceuticals said Monday that it has received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to go ahead with its phase 2a clinical trials on OLX10010, an anti-scar treatment.

The company confirmed the drug’s safety and tolerability from humans during its prior phase 1 trial this May. Olix plans to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the drug in patients with hypertrophic scars in the phase 2a clinical trial.

Hugel, OliX’s co-developer and exclusive distributor in Asia for the treatment, plans to conduct the clinical trials. If the trial succeeds, the company will receive additional milestone fee from Hugel.

“OLX10010 could be an effective and safe treatment option for numerous patients with hypertrophic scars, who have not been properly managed due to lack of approved prescription medicine yet,” Olix CEO Lee Dong-ki said. “The approval of phase 2 clinical trial could provide the opportunity to find out human proof of concept for the platform technology of OliX.”

OliX is the only company in Korea and the first company in Asia that has entered the clinical stage with its own patented platform, cp-asiRNA, among the developers with RNAi (RNA interference) technologies. The developing therapeutic programs of the company beside anti-scar treatment include idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sub-retinal fibrosis and age-related macular degeneration.