[Featured Stock] Amicogen Gains on Highlighted Antiviral Activity of Anthelmintic Ingredient Against COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] As attempts to develop treatments for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) using anthelmintic drug components increase, interest in Amicogen is also growing in the domestic stock market.

At 10:50 AM on the 14th, Amicogen was trading at 23,150 KRW, up 3.81% from the previous day.

The Korea Pasteur Institute and Daewoong Therapeutics announced on the same day that they will collaborate to develop a COVID-19 treatment using the anthelmintic component 'Niclosamide.' The Korea Pasteur Institute explained that based on drug repositioning research for COVID-19, Niclosamide showed 40 times higher antiviral efficacy against COVID-19 in cell experiments compared to the Ebola treatment 'Remdesivir' and 26 times higher compared to the malaria treatment 'Chloroquine,' prompting the start of this development.

The previous day, Amicogen also announced that it would begin developing a COVID-19 treatment using Ivermectin, an animal drug produced by its subsidiary Amicogen (China) Biopharm.

An Amicogen official stated, "Ivermectin is used not only as an anthelmintic but has also been found to have antiviral effects against AIDS, dengue fever, influenza, and Zika," adding, "Since Ivermectin is an FDA-approved drug, we judged that drug repositioning for COVID-19 treatment could be possible within a short period."

Amicogen China is responsible for securing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of Ivermectin and obtaining approval and registration within China, Amicogen Pharma is conducting domestic experiments and approval applications, and Amicogen will provide technical support during the treatment development stage and handle commercialization.

Recently, Dr. Kylie Wagstaff’s research team at Monash University in Australia announced experimental results showing that exposing cells infected with the COVID-19 virus to Ivermectin eliminated all viral genetic material within 48 hours. Ivermectin is currently produced and sold as an animal injectable drug by Amicogen (China) Biopharm.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.