Daewoong Pet Expands UDCA Tablet Lineup for Veterinary Use

Launches New 50 mg Low-Dose Formulation to Reduce Compounding Burden and Improve Dosing Consistency

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Daewoong Pet (CEO: Jae-bong Moon) announced on xx that it will launch UDCA Tablet 50 mg, a new low-dose formulation of its veterinary-exclusive UDCA Tablet, in the first half of 2026. The new product expands the existing lineup, which has previously been available only as a 200 mg tablet, with the aim of improving prescription efficiency and dosing consistency for long-term administration in companion animals.

UDCA Tablet is a veterinary-dedicated oral formulation designed to reflect real-world clinical environments in which companion animals require management of hepatobiliary diseases. Its active ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is widely used in veterinary practice due to its bile secretion–enhancing and hepatoprotective effects. UDCA is also known for its wide safety margin and suitability for long-term administration, making it a commonly prescribed option for patients with chronic liver disease.

Until now, however, UDCA Tablet has been available only as a single high-dose 200 mg tablet. In clinical practice, veterinarians frequently divide or crush tablets to adjust dosing according to body weight or to improve administration convenience. This process can lead to increased compounding burden due to powder dispersion during preparation, as well as dosing variability during administration by pet owners, making it difficult to maintain consistent dosing over long-term treatment.

As awareness grows regarding compounding safety and dosing accuracy in veterinary prescriptions, there is increasing emphasis on minimizing tablet crushing and prescribing intact tablets whenever possible. This trend is particularly important for medications intended for long-term use, where both preparation efficiency and owner compliance must be carefully considered.

UDCA Tablet 50 mg was developed to address these clinical needs. The low-dose formulation allows veterinarians to tailor dosing by tablet count without the need to split or crush higher-dose tablets. This approach is expected to reduce compounding workload within veterinary hospitals while enabling more stable and consistent administration by pet owners.

The tablet size has also been reduced to accommodate small-breed dogs and cats, improving ease of administration and reducing stress for both patients and caregivers. Beyond a simple dose expansion, UDCA Tablet 50 mg represents a veterinary-specific formulation option designed with the entire prescription–compounding–administration process in mind.

A Daewoong Pet representative stated, “UDCA Tablet 50 mg was developed with a focus on improving the inconvenience of tablet crushing that has been repeatedly raised in clinical practice, in line with the long-term prescribing characteristics of UDCA. By enabling tablet-based dosing, we expect it to reduce the compounding burden for veterinarians and hospital staff while supporting more consistent long-term medication management for patients.”

Meanwhile, a recent study published in an international academic journal reported findings on the relationship between chronic kidney disease (CKD), bile acid metabolism, and UDCA in cats. The study showed that cats with CKD had significantly lower levels of secondary bile acids—particularly UDCA—in feces compared to healthy cats, and suggested that these changes were associated with reductions in specific gut microbiota.

The researchers noted that these findings highlight the importance of bile acid metabolism from a gut–kidney axis perspective and suggest that UDCA may have implications beyond hepatobiliary support, potentially linking gut environment, systemic inflammation, and kidney function. While the study was conducted at a basic research level using animal models, it has been evaluated as a useful reference for expanding mechanistic understanding of UDCA use in veterinary medicine.

Full article URL:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11532117/

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