Seoul oks 2 more clinical trials to fight Covid-19, raising the pipeline candidates to 30

[Photo provided by SK Bioscience]

Korean heath authorities have approved two more clinical trials to fight Covid-19, bringing the total number of approved human body tests to explore effective drugs or vaccines against the virus to 30.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on Monday it gave a nod to conducting a Phase 1 clinical study of SK Bioscience’s investigational vaccine (NBP2001) and a Phase 2 trial of Dongwha Pharm’s therapy (DW2008S).

SK Bioscience said preclinical test results of NBP2001 showed higher than expected efficacy and it will immediately begin the planned clinical trial to demonstrate the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.

SK Bioscience successfully induced neutralizing antibodies about 10 times higher those in the serum of convalescent patients after Covid-19 infection in a primate test conducted in August. Such neutralizing antibodies in the NBP2001 arm were confirmed to have blocked the proliferation of virus in the respiratory tract of primates, while those in the comparator group were infected with coronavirus. NBP2001 is a recombinant vaccine made with the surface antigen protein of Covid-19 through genetic recombination technology.

The planned Phase 2 trial of DW2008S aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment in patients with moderate symptoms.

The drug which is originally being developed as an asthma therapy will be explored as a potential antiviral agent against Covid-19 in this clinical trial.

A total of 30 clinical trials have so far been approved for Covid-19 treatment or prevention in Korea, and 22 clinical trials of 19 drugs and three vaccines are currently underway across the country.

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