By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Celltrion has developed a drug based on "human monoclonal antibodies" that can be effective against multiple influenza viruses, the biopharmaceutical company said Tuesday.
The company tentatively called the drug a Super Flu-Antibody Therapy.
This is the first time a drug effective against multiple viruses has been developed in Korea. Celltrion expects to release the product next year, ahead of major rivals in the U.S. and other countries who have also been successful in developing substances that are effective against one or more viruses.
The drug neutralizes a broad spectrum of influenza viruses and could be effective for the pandemic H1N1, H5N1 avian influenza and others, Celltrion said.
Researchers conducted vitro microneutralization assays and in-vivo animal studies using seasonal pandemic H1, H2 and H5 subtypes of influenza on mice. Tests on primates and humans will be conducted next and the results will be published by end of next year, company spokesman Kim Yong-jung said.
"It will be a universal biopharmaceutical material to treat influenza infections and their complications in humans. The drug is also a potential candidate for treating possible pandemic or zoonotic influenza viruses," the company CEO Seo Jung-jin said Tuesday at a press conference.
The use of monoclonal antibodies was jointly researched by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's influenza division, the Severance Hospital, Seoul National University Hospital, SC World and Celltrion.
The Spanish Flu that swept the globe in 1918 took the lives of 20 to 40 million people around the world while Influenza A (H3N2), dubbed Hong Kong Flu, killed more than a million. The recent outbreak of H1N1 flu killed more than 16,455, according to the World Health Organization.