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| The government said Saturday it will begin supplying Celltrion's COVID-19 antibody treatment to medical facilities in mid-February. Yonhap |
Korean pharmaceutical giant Celltrion said Monday that its inhaled version of an antibody treatment candidate for COVID-19 has shown to be safe in a clinical trial.
A total of 24 healthy volunteers were enrolled in a phase one clinical trial conducted by Celltrion's global partner, Inhalon Biopharma, in Australia.
Celltrion said the trial proved the inhaled antibody treatment's safety as there were no severe adverse reactions or discontinuation of medication due to these.
The company said it plans to accelerate the development of a cocktail therapy with its inhaled candidate and CT-P63, a candidate antibody for treating COVID-19.
CT-P63 is a monoclonal antibody targeting the spike receptor binding domain of the coronavirus. It has shown a neutralizing ability against earlier variants of COVID-19 ― Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
It is different from Rekirona, a monoclonal antibody with activity against COVID-19. A monoclonal antibody is a type of protein that has been designed to attach to a specific cellular structure.
Celltrion also said it has completed the submission of phase three clinical trial plans for the inhaled cocktail antibody therapy in three countries ― Bosnia, Serbia and North Macedonia.
In February 2021, Rekirona won the Korean drug safety agency's conditional approval, becoming the first locally made treatment for COVID-19.
The drug won overseas approval for emergency application by the European Medicines Agency. It has also been granted emergency use authorizations in several countries. (Yonhap)
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