Celltrion "Antibody Treatment Effective Against Variants in New York, Nigeria, India... Reduced Effectiveness Against Brazil Variant"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jung] Celltrion's COVID-19 antibody treatment 'Rekkirona' has been effective against the New York, Nigeria, and India variant viruses, but its effectiveness was found to be reduced against the Brazil variant virus.

Celltrion announced on the 14th that this result came from testing Rekkirona's neutralizing ability against recently spreading variants at the National Institute of Health under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

After mixing the variants with antibodies and infecting host cells, the degree to which the antibodies inhibited the virus was confirmed, showing that Rekkirona exhibited neutralizing ability against the New York and Nigeria variants.

Additionally, in a pseudovirus test conducted recently by Celltrion at an overseas research institute, Rekkirona demonstrated inhibitory effects against the India variant as well.

However, test results conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed a decrease in neutralizing ability against the Brazil variant. Accordingly, Celltrion plans to reconfirm Rekkirona's actual clinical therapeutic efficacy through animal testing procedures for the Brazil variant. It was also confirmed that the neutralizing ability decreased against the South African variant virus, which shares many similarities with the Brazil variant.

A Celltrion official stated, "Although Rekkirona is expected to exert sufficient efficacy against various variants such as South Africa, the UK, Brazil, New York, Nigeria, and India, which are sporadically spreading recently, we are continuously monitoring the situation as additional mutations may occur," adding, "We will continue to test whether Rekkirona shows neutralizing ability against newly emerging variants."