South Korea Is First Country to Test Covid-19 Antibody Drug

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday, July 17th South Korea became the first country to approve human trials of an antibody-based medication against the novel coronavirus.

The medication, made by South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion Healthcare, will begin stage one of trials on 32 healthy volunteers at a local hospital. In animal tests, the medication has succeeded in reducing the viral load of Covid-19.

The company said trials will soon begin in countries in Europe, such as the United Kingdom, while stage 2 and 3 trials will be conducted on a global scale – countries have not yet been advised – in patients with mild and moderate symptoms of the disease. The treatment was developed based on the antibodies found in the first patients who recovered from Covid-19 in the country in February.

Celltrion estimates that the trials will be completed by the end of this year and the drug will be ready for commercial sales in early 2021.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, the company’s CEO, Kee Woo-sung, said that “the human trials will be conducted globally, so we will certainly export the medication, but we will only give it to patients abroad after securing a stockpile for South Korea.”

For a vaccine or medication to be approved and distributed, it needs to undergo three trial stages. Stage one is the initial stage, when companies try to prove the safety of their drugs in humans; the second is the stage that tries to establish that the vaccine or drug does produce immunity against a virus; while stage three is the last stage in the trial and seeks to demonstrate the drug’s efficacy.

This stage must be completed and the protection provided must receive a sanitary registration in order for a drug to finally be made available to the population. Finally, in stage 4, the vaccine or medicine is released to the population.

Source: Exame