Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Celltrion, a South Korean bio firm involved in a project to develop preventive vaccines and medicine for the treatment of patients infected with a new coronavirus, has jumped into the second stage of developing monoclonal antibody treatment by analyzing and evaluating antibodies in the blood of a cured patient.

To secure therapeutic antibodies and start clinical trials on patients, Celltrion has secured candidates for antibody treatment for a lab experiment to ensure that antibodies can neutralize the new coronavirus.

From April 2, Celltrion said that it embarked on the verification of antibodies to see if they can neutralize the virus in the test tube and started screening the second group of candidate antibodies. The company said it would start clinical tests on animals after finishing the verification process.

"In the process, all available personnel will be mobilized to present products that can be administered to the human body in the shortest period of time," a Celltrion official said. "The entire research team is working hard to find the best candidate material for human clinical administration in July."

The Korea National Institute of Health, a state research body, has selected SK Bioscience and Celltrion as cooperation partners for its project to develop preventive vaccines and medicine. SK Bioscience claimed to have secured a candidate for COVID-19 through the protein culture and refining platform of an antigen produced with gene recombination technology.