Korea’s JW Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of JW Holdings, announced that it has developed a tablet formulation of Dutasteride, treatment for hair loss and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The new product is the first time a domestic pharmaceutical company succeeded in developing a tablet form of Dutasteride, reported the country’s leading news portal The Korean Biomedical Review.

The news report explained that the company applied its self-micro emulsifying drug delivery system to the tablet giving it the same absorption rate as conventional soft capsules. This system allows fast absorption of drugs with poorly soluble properties into the patient’s body and also minimizes the inconvenience of soft-capsules sticking to mouth and esophagus while solving problems, such as leakage of contents due to cracks on soft capsules wrapped in a gelatin overcoat.

“It can also serve as a combination treatment with an alpha-blocker, the first-line medication for benign prostatic hyperplasia, which will likely generate new sales in the combination prescription,” said the company, as quoted by the Korean Biomedical Review

The company has completed patent registering for its Dutasteride refining technology in September last year and is discussing with multinational pharmaceutical companies for selling it in the global market. JW Pharmaceutical expects to release the drug at the home market in the second half of this year.

“Since the commercialization of the developed Dutasteride tablet formulation will only take a short period, we expect it will be advantageous in becoming a high value-added product compared to capsule formulation,” said Lee Sang-jun, head of global business division at JW Holdings. “As the demand for tablet formulations is high in countries with high temperature and humidity, we will aggressively market the product in the global market.”

According to IMS Health, a global healthcare data provider, the global market for Dutasteride, including a combination with the alpha-blocker, amounted to approximately 1 trillion won ($930 million) in 2016.