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▲ Celltrion Corona 19 antibody treatment, Rekirona (Photo = Alliance) |
[에너지경제신문 이나경 기자] Celltrion has abandoned the prophylactic clinical trial for the antibody treatment for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19),’Rekirona’. It was decided to withdraw the clinical trial within a month after the government-funded project was selected, and attention is being paid to the reason.
According to the’Corona 19 treatment and vaccine new drug development project, abandonment of the 2nd selection task agreement in 2020′ submitted by the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee member Jeon Bong-min from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Celltrion succeeded in Rekkirona. Abandoned the clinical trial of the treatment.
The government provided a total of 31.7 billion won for the development of Celltrion’s antibody treatments through two times in August and November of last year, and the antibody treatment, which was the first task, was used on February 5 of this year with a treatment license from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Went into On the other hand, it was confirmed that the development of preventive antibody treatment, which was the second selection task, was submitted to the government’s cross-ministerial drug development project group in mid-December. It is less than a month since the project was selected. The reason for giving up by Celltrion is known to be due to difficulties in recruiting clinical trial participants due to vaccine development and national blockade by global pharmaceutical companies.
Celltrion said, “It is true that we have given up the national project,” and said, “We believe that the original role of the corona treatment is more important in a situation where vaccines are being supplied in earnest, and a decision was made to focus on the existing phase 3 clinical trials of Rekirona and mutant virus clinical trials.” Explained. However, some are suspicious that the difficulty in recruiting patients is only a superficial difficulty, and whether the decision was made due to the reduced economic feasibility of preventive treatments due to the supply of vaccines.
According to the actual data submitted to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the initially planned preventive effect clinical trials were Pocheon Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center Paju Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center Icheon Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center Uijeongbu Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center Anseong Hospital, Gyeonggi Medical Center Suwon Hospital. , Keimyung University Daegu Dongsan Hospital, Bitgoeul Chonnam University Hospital, Chungnam National University Hospital, Seoul Medical Center, Gil Hospital, etc., a total of 11 locations, so it is considered that there is no difficulty in recruiting clinical participants.
With this incident, the government also seems to be inevitable to point out that administrative power wasted due to premature support and delayed development of domestic treatments.
Congressman Bong-min Jeon said, “The government has invested hundreds of billions of dollars of budget to develop a domestic treatment for Corona 19, but the treatment for severely ill patients is not being developed,” he said. The former lawmaker stressed that “the government will have to prepare a more systematic support plan in preparation for the re-proliferation of Corona 19 that may be additionally”.
On the other hand, two treatments under development with the government’s clinical support are Green Cross and Daewoong Pharmaceutical, and the completion of phase 2 clinical trials for emergency approval is planned in August and September of this year, respectively.