COVID-19 treatment: South Korean pharmaceutical companies to release medicines for treating coronavirus infection

Major pharmaceutical companies in South Korea, including Cho Kun Dang, GC Pharma, and Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., are releasing their own drug for treating COVID-19. The made in Korea medicines are said to be hitting the market soon.

With these South Korean pharma companies’ entrance to the COVID-19 treatment market, Korean drugs for treating the virus just increased to four. This is because Celltrion is also releasing its COVID-19 treatment called the CT-P59 after going through phases of clinical trials.

Drug companies announce successful results of coronavirus treatments

Celltrion was already approved for emergency use in December. This means that South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has given its permission for doctors are to administer Celltrion’s COVID-19 antibody treatment to patients with life-threatening conditions even while clinical trials for CT-P59 or Regdanvimab are still ongoing.

Now, a day after Celltrion reported positive top-line efficacy and safety data from its global Phase II/III clinical trial on Jan. 13, Chong Kun Dang pharma also showed encouraging results from its own phase 2 trial for COVID-19 treatment called Nafamostat.

This drug has been tested on more than 100 volunteers in Russia. At least 36 high-risk patients were given the drug, and Nafamostat reportedly showed 61.1% clinical improvement. Plus, just like what Celltrion claimed, Chong Kun Dang also stated that its COVID-19 treatment drug shortened the recovery time of patients by at least four days.

Chong Kun Dang further suggests that Nafamostat can help prevent death in seriously-ill COVID-19 patients. As per the Korea Herald, the pharmaceutical firm is now trying to get approval for its phase 3 trials and emergency use.

Emergency-use drug application for the pharma companies

Celltrion was already approved for emergency use, and Ching Kung Dang sent its application for approval. On the other hand, GC Pharma and Daewoong are also expected to apply soon.

For GC Pharma, it will get approval for its blood plasma-derived COVID-19 treatment called GC5131A. It has completed its phase 2 trial with 60 volunteers, and data results are expected to come out soon. This company’s drug is meant to treat patients of serious COVID-19 cases.

Daewoong is now in phase 3 trial, but although its phase 2 tests returned good results, it did not show the effects they were hoping for. It will be applying for emergency use authorization for its Camostat drug that is meant for treating mild and moderate cases.

Finally, all of these companies still need to show more results from phase 3 trials so they can be approved and eventually released into the market.