[Yang Nak-gyu's Defense Club] ADD, Development of COVID-19 Therapeutics

In front of the main gate of the Agency for Defense Development. All other facilities are security zones where photography is prohibited.

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has embarked on developing a novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment using genetic material. Notably, it has attracted attention as the world's first treatment using RNA, a genetic material, has demonstrated efficacy in animal clinical trials.

According to the preprint site 'bioRxiv' on the 5th, ADD, in collaboration with the domestic new drug development specialist company Abion, published a paper on the 7th of last month detailing the results of animal efficacy tests for a COVID-19 treatment. BioRxiv is a pre-publication paper disclosure site operated by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States. Scientists upload their papers here before submitting them to international journals such as Nature or Science, allowing peer scientists to exchange opinions. This facilitates incorporating new ideas and enables follow-up research.

While pharmaceutical companies worldwide are accelerating the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, treatments are categorized into plasma therapy, antibody therapy, and gene therapy. The treatment developed by ADD is a gene therapy. Gene therapy prevents the virus inside cells from spreading to other cells once the virus has invaded. In the medical community, gene therapy is considered a treatment capable of rapid response even if the COVID-19 virus undergoes mutations.

In the treatment field, drug repurposing research, such as for Ebola treatments, is active, but it is known that clear effects have not been demonstrated in animal efficacy tests. In contrast, ADD confirmed in efficacy tests on monkeys that replication of the COVID-19 virus was suppressed and symptoms were alleviated. ADD plans to proceed with clinical trials on humans following animal tests in cooperation with domestic and international pharmaceutical companies.

Since 2018, ADD has been developing a treatment for Hantaan Virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. During the Korean War, soldiers infected with the Hantaan Virus lost hundreds of lives. Even now, military personnel in frontline areas are exposed to the risk of hemorrhagic fever, requiring special caution. ADD has developed a gene-based treatment to prevent Hantaan Virus transmission, and this method has been directly applied to the COVID-19 treatment.

President Moon Jae-in, during his visit to ADD on the 23rd of last month, encouraged the agency, saying, "As president, I am very grateful that you are playing a role in the research and development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines based on biochemical research capabilities."

Meanwhile, 24 vaccine candidates related to COVID-19 are under development. Companies such as AstraZeneca in the UK, Moderna in the US, and Sinopharm in China are leading the way. In South Korea, major companies are developing vaccines aiming to complete clinical trials by the second half of next year through trials within this year. Genexine began clinical trials for a genetic (DNA) vaccine in June, and SK Bioscience and GeneOne Life Science are also targeting entry into clinical trials within this year.