[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Access Bio is showing strong performance. It appears that news of the CEVI (Novel Virus) Convergence Research Group at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, which signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its subsidiary, discovering antibodies capable of combating the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), has had an impact.
As of 2:26 PM on the 4th, Access Bio was trading at 2,960 KRW, up 6.09% (170 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.
The Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology announced that the CEVI Convergence Research Group predicted that two known SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) neutralizing antibodies and one MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) neutralizing antibody can bind to the COVID-19 spike protein.
The spike protein is used by the coronavirus to invade cells, and the research team predicted antibodies that can bind to this spike protein from SARS and MERS. Antibodies are a type of weapon created by our body's immune response to neutralize invading viruses.
Dr. Hongki Kim of the Novel Virus Convergence Research Group said, "SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 all have spikes on their surfaces, so by utilizing the structural information of existing SARS and MERS, we can find clues for developing neutralizing antibodies and medical antibodies for COVID-19." He added, "Through genomic analysis of COVID-19, we predicted via bioinformatics analysis whether existing SARS and MERS neutralizing antibodies can bind to COVID-19."
Access Bio’s subsidiary, Wells Bio, signed an MOU on January 30 with the Novel Virus Convergence Research Group (CEVI Convergence Research Group) at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology for joint research on molecular diagnostics and immunodiagnostic technology for Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus).
According to the agreement, the two institutions plan to pursue ▲ development of molecular diagnostic technology capable of detecting specific genes of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) ▲ development and commercialization of immunodiagnostic technology for detecting antigen proteins of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
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