Kwang Dong steps up research on fermented deer antlers

Choi Sung-won, left, president of Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical, poses with Chae Soo-wan, director of the Clinical Trial Center for Functional Foods affiliated with Chonbuk National University Hospital at the firm’s building in southern Seoul, Wednesday, after signing a memorandum of understanding for joint research on fermented deer antlers. / Courtesy of Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical

By Park Yoon-bae

Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a clinical trial center affiliated with Chonbuk National University Hospital to conduct joint research on fermented deer antlers.

The MOU was signed between Kwang Dong President Choi Sung-won and Chae Soo-wan, director of the hospital’s Clinical Trial Center for Functional Foods at the firm’s building in southern Seoul, Wednesday.

The two have agreed to work together to experiment with fermented deer antlers to prove their effect in improving fatigue recovery and hematogenous functions.

They have also agreed to develop functional foods by processing fermented deer antlers.

A company spokesman said the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will provide financial support for the joint research. The institute is affiliated with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The spokesman said that Kwang Dong has become a pioneer in research on antlers. He hopes that it will succeed in commercializing fermented deer antler products.

Under the agreement, the drug maker and the center will cooperate in clinical trial on humans to determine the antlers’ effect in improving health. They will also collaborate to register extracts of fermented deer antlers as functional foods after proving their efficacy.

Kwang Dong started its own research on the antlers in 2010. Then it conducted joint research with Korea University.