Sanko Junyaku and Eisai to Co-promote “Picolumi® ucOC”, Diagnostic Agent Introduced by Sanko Junyaku New Diagnostic Agent Helps Physicians Make Prescribing Choice for Vitamin K2 Medication Therapy for Osteoporosis Patients

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to fracture. It frequently affects women after menopause and the elderly and the number of osteoporosis patients is expected to increase. The half of the osteoporosis patients who experience hip fractures impairs their mobility, which significantly influences on the patients' quality of life.

Medication is one of the treatment options for the patients with osteoporosis, along with dietary management and exercise. While there are different types of medications available, physicians make a choice based on the various factors including the patients' symptoms. Therapeutic Vitamin K₂ Preparation is one of such options that helps osteoporosis patients whose level of Vitamin K in bone are insufficient, for Vitamin K has demonstrated its efficacy in improving the bone matrix protein osteocalcin by acting on osteogenic lineage.

The osteocalcin (OC) is a type of bone matrix proteins that exists in the osteoblast cells (cells that are responsible for bone formation), which is believed to act on the bone formation. It is activated when the glutamic acid residues in the OC are converted into γ-carboxylated glutamate residues with the influence of Vitamin K. In the osteoporosis patients who experience Vitamin K insufficiency, this conversion of the glutamic acid residues cannot be completed due to the lack of adequate amount of Vitamin K, and as a result, will be released into the blood as undercaboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC). There are overseas technical reports that demonstrate a high concentration of ucOC could be a risk factor for hip fracture.

Sanko Junyaku and Eisai Co., Ltd. are in license agreement with Takara Bio Inc. for the technology to measure the serum unOC to screen Vitamin K insufficiency in the bones of osteoporosis patients. The technology was originally developed by Takara Bio Inc. in collaboration with Dr. Pierre D. Delmas of Institut de Veille Santitaire, France (INSERM). (The patent registered in Japan, the U.S., and in some European countries.)