Seo Jung-jin "COVID-19 Antibody Treatment, Clinical Goal by End of July" (Update)

Seo Jung-jin, Chairman of Celltrion, is entering the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul, where the bus heading to Cheongwadae to attend the '2019 Dialogue with Entrepreneurs' hosted by President Moon Jae-in on the 15th is located. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Celltrion announced on the 23rd that it has secured 300 antibody candidates for the development of a treatment for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and aims to begin human administration by the end of July.

At an online press conference on the same day, Seo Jung-jin, Chairman of the Celltrion Group, said, "We have completed the most critical first step in treatment development just three weeks after receiving immune cells from patients."

Chairman Seo added, "Generally, this stage in the antibody therapeutic development process takes 3 to 6 months. We plan to administer the antibody treatment to humans as early as mid-July, and no later than the end of July."

Celltrion plans to identify the most outstanding candidates through a secondary screening process among the 300 antibody candidates in collaboration with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Chungbuk National University. Chairman Seo said, "We are currently conducting in vitro neutralization tests to verify whether these antibodies can neutralize the COVID-19 virus."

Starting in May, Celltrion will begin cell line production for mass antibody manufacturing and plans to complete the production of clinical materials for human administration by the end of July. Chairman Seo stated, "After human administration begins, we plan to develop enough therapeutic antibodies for one million people per month." He added, "For patients with mild symptoms, therapeutic antibodies will be administered to observe how much the virus can be reduced, and for critically ill patients, the antibodies will be given alongside existing antiviral drugs to see if virus elimination and mortality reduction can be achieved."

Additionally, Celltrion has begun full-scale development of super antibodies capable of responding to COVID-19 virus mutations and diagnostic kits. Chairman Seo said, "Unlike the current rapid diagnostic kits that only detect N antibodies (N protein), we are developing a product that detects S antibodies unique to COVID-19." He added, "We plan to produce prototypes next month and apply for approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety after obtaining European certification by the end of May."