By Gina Lee
Investing.com – South Korea’s Celltrion Inc announced results from a small-size early-stage trial for its COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment CT-P59 on Friday. The results showed that patients treated with CT-P59 showed at least a 44% improvement in recovery time.
Celltrion (KS:068270) stocks in Korea were up 2.02% to KRW277,500 ($246.24) by 12:44 AM ET (4:44 AM GMT).
In a global phase I trials involving 18 patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms, 15 participants who received the treatment had an average recovery time of about 44% faster than the remaining three people in a placebo group.
None of the patients treated with CT-P59 in the study had required hospitalization or other antiviral therapies so far, with CT-P59 well tolerated with no clinically significant safety issues, the company said.
The positive results will boost Celltrion’s plans to obtain emergency use approval in South Korea for the antibody by the end of year. The company is also planning global phase 2 and 3 trials, after receiving South Korea’s regulatory nod to start phase 3 trials in October. The phase 3 trials will involve around 1,000 asymptomatic patients and patients who have who have come into close contact with COVID-19 patients in Korea.
Celltrion already began commercial production of the drug in September, with around 1 million doses expected to be produced for both the domestic and interntional markets.
Although firms such as Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN), Roche and Novartis are also developing COVID-19 antibody treatments, no monoclonal antibody has been approved against COVID-19 so far.