“For nearly a year, I went to work at 8 am and left at 12 pm. The researchers were like eating all night long. We endured with one sense of mission to save the people.” (Kwon Ki-seong, Director of Celltrion Research Institute)
“It wasn’t once or twice that I got an emergency call in the middle of the night and ran to the factory. It was a tough day, but when I hear the words’Thanks to you, I can get a vaccination’, I feel proud.”
New coronavirus infection (Corona 19) domestic drug approval is coming soon. Vaccination will also begin next month. It is a step toward ending the corona. It is thanks to those who worked day and night for the development of COVID-19 treatment and vaccine production.
“The development of a new domestic drug was like a war.”
Early February last year, just after the first coronavirus confirmed in Korea. Celltrion Chairman Seo Jeong-jin gave a special order to develop a corona treatment within 10 months at an executive meeting. “It took a year to search for new drug candidates, which was an almost impossible goal. Besides, I couldn’t guarantee that Corona would be riding all year round like now. During development, we started with the risk that we might have to close it because it was not commercially available.” Celltrion Research Institute Director Kwon Ki-seong said about the situation a year ago.
The sweat of more than 180 Celltrion researchers is melted in the corona antibody treatment’CT-P59′, which began development in February last year. On February 27, last year, blood samples from patients recovering from Corona 19 were first received at Seoul National University Hospital. Celltrion researchers went straight to three shifts and searched for candidates around the clock. Dozens of researchers were invested in the development of candidate materials alone. On March 23, a month later, 300 potential candidates for COVID-19 treatment were found. It was about 5 months shorter than usual.
The process of discovering final candidates was no different from gamble. Once the cell line was found, it was cultured and purified immediately before deciding on the final candidate. General Director Kwon said, “I kept in mind that if a defect occurred in the middle, I had to fold it right away.”
Celltrion, which derived the final antibody candidate group on April 13, entered phase 1 clinical trials in July. Director Kwon said, “All of the researchers focused on developing treatments with a sense of calling rather than money.” He said, “I only made one or two personal appointments last year,” he said.
The clinical process was also not smooth. SOS came in from an employee who stayed in Romania last December. “(The number of confirmed cases is soaring) This is a battlefield. There is no time for the clinical doctor to organize the data.”
The clinical trial was about to be delayed. A setback was inevitable with the plan to apply for permission by 2020. This time, Celltrion Vice Chairman Ki Woo-sung appeared. He canceled all of his holiday schedules and boarded a flight to Romania. He met with local doctors and staff who had stayed in Romania to help with clinical trials and solved the problem one by one. “Employees stayed up all night to help clinicians organize data,” he said. “After the dedication and sacrifice of the staff, we were able to miraculously apply for conditional approval.”
“I’m proud to be at the forefront of vaccine production”
SK Bio Kwon Se-on Team Leader
Kwon Se-on, head of SK Bioscience’s Quality Management (QC) team, is leading the production quality management of the COVID-19 vaccine, which signed contracts with AstraZeneca in July and NovaVax in August. AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine and NovaVax’s protein recombination vaccine use live cells. Even small changes in the culture environment such as temperature and humidity can cause problems. In the event of such an emergency, the researcher in charge is called at any time and location. Team leader Kwon said, “Eight researchers in the QC team are in charge of different cell culture tasks,” he said. “I always stay nervous because a huge amount of cells can be discarded even if a small problem occurs in the culture process.
SK Bio, Manager Eun-Som Kim
The reality that it was difficult to face the working-level staff of vaccine developers AstraZeneca and NovaVax was also quite difficult. Usually, when consignment production is carried out, practitioners from both companies meet, transfer the technology necessary for production, and go through a review process. However, this procedure was omitted for the corona vaccine. The schedule was tight, but it was because the corona blocked the traffic. “I solved the problem by email and video call,” said Kwon, and said, “The know-how accumulated in the flu vaccine production process was helpful.”
SK Bioscience is also developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Kim Eun-som, manager of the innovation team at SK Bioscience’s Pangyo Research Center, said, “Since February last year, all researchers have been devoted to vaccine efficacy research.”
Reporter Kim Woo-seop/Choi Ji-won [email protected]