"Concerns Over COVID-19 Metropolitan Area Surge"... Rally Resumes for Companies Developing Bivalent Antibody Vaccines and Therapeutics

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Recently, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) have been concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. Considering the characteristics of the metropolitan area, which has a high population density and a large floating population, the possibility of a pandemic is gradually increasing. As concerns about COVID-19 grow again, stocks of companies listed in the domestic stock market related to vaccine and treatment development are soaring.

On the 9th, in the KOSDAQ market, Optipharm is trading at 16,900 KRW, up 16.96% from the previous day.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for COVID-19 on the 9th, among the 349 new confirmed cases reported so far this month, 313 are community infections. Of these, 303 cases occurred in the Seoul metropolitan area. The proportion of metropolitan area patients among community infection cases is 96.8%, indicating a concentration of patients in the metropolitan area.

The government expressed concern that infections are spreading sequentially centered on cluster infection facilities in the metropolitan area. If the chain of transmission is not broken, a pandemic may not be prevented.

Optipharm, NewG Lab, Jeil Pharmaceutical, Daewoong, and Ilyang Pharmaceutical are surging. Optipharm, together with Hubet Bio, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and Korea University College of Pharmacy, has formed a 'COVID-19 Vaccine Development Consortium' and is developing a vaccine. The consortium announced that on the 4th, it completed the first animal experiment to confirm the generation of neutralizing antibodies and is entering the second phase of challenge vaccination experiments to verify the defense capability and safety of the candidate substance. According to the consortium, the first experiment results showed that neutralizing antibodies began to be induced three weeks after vaccination and were maintained at more than 128-fold for five weeks until the eighth week.

Jeon Sang-yong, Head of Research Center at DS Investment & Securities, analyzed, "Daewoong's subsidiary Daewoong Therapeutics administered a new formulation of niclosamide, ‘DWRX2003’, to ferrets infected with COVID-19 in collaboration with Chungbuk National University College of Medicine," adding, "In vivo efficacy tests were conducted, demonstrating very excellent results." He further stated, "Autopsy and virus concentration measurements of lung tissue conducted on the third day after infection showed that the COVID-19 virus was completely eliminated from the lung tissue."

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