Celltrion "Rekkirona's Delta Variant Defense Ability... Expected to be Proven in Animal Tests"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Ji-hwan] Celltrion announced on the 25th that it will demonstrate the protective ability of its self-developed COVID-19 antibody treatment 'Rekkirona' against the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), an India-origin variant, through animal efficacy experiments.

On the same day, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's National Institute of Health reported that an analysis of Rekkirona's efficacy against COVID-19 variant viruses at the cell line level showed that its neutralizing ability, which is the virus neutralization capacity against the Delta variant, was significantly reduced compared to the non-variant GR group.

Celltrion is currently conducting animal efficacy experiments to estimate the actual efficacy in humans against the India-origin Delta variant and the Brazil-origin Gamma variant. They plan to sequentially produce results by early next month and announce them promptly.

According to Celltrion, Rekkirona showed reduced neutralizing ability in cell line level efficacy analysis against the South Africa-origin Beta variant. However, in recent animal experiments using ferrets, a species related to minks, and laboratory mice, the viral titers in the Rekkirona-treated group were significantly reduced compared to the untreated control group, and weight loss was also prevented.

Celltrion stated, "We will focus on efficacy analysis through experiments at the cell line level and animal experiments in cooperation with domestic and international institutions, and continuously verify Rekkirona's response capability against COVID-19 virus variants sporadically occurring worldwide."