[Featured Stock] iGene, Korea's First mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine... Expected to Have High Effectiveness Against Delta Variant

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] IGEN is surging. The news that it has completed the application for domestic Phase 1/2a clinical trials with the mRNA-based COVID-19 preventive vaccine ‘EG-COVID’, which it is developing independently, appears to have influenced the stock price.

As of 9:25 AM on the 1st, IGEN was trading at 46,750 KRW, up 17.76% (7,050 KRW) from the previous trading day.

IGEN is conducting Phase 1/2a clinical trials to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine ‘EG-COVID’ for COVID-19 prevention in healthy adults.

Step 1 involves dividing a total of 45 subjects into three groups and administering mRNA doses of 50㎍, 100㎍, and 200㎍ respectively to evaluate safety and immunogenicity. Step 2 will be conducted consecutively with 125 subjects, compressed into two dosage groups.

IGEN’s ‘EG-COVID’ is an mRNA-based COVID-19 preventive vaccine, and upon clinical approval, it is expected to be the first mRNA-based COVID-19 preventive vaccine to undergo clinical trials domestically. Additionally, it is a vaccine that applies IGEN’s proprietary cationic liposome delivery system instead of lipid nanoparticles (LNP).

An IGEN official stated, “EG-COVID will proceed with phased dosing according to the clinical trial plan after approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the clinical trial institutions.” He added, “Based on interim evaluation results in the second half of the year, we plan to prepare for rapid entry into subsequent clinical trials.”

He also said, “Since EG-COVID uses mRNA based on the European variant D614G virus, it is theoretically expected to induce higher immunogenicity against variant viruses compared to mRNA vaccines based on the Wuhan strain.” He continued, “Currently commercialized mRNA vaccines include PEG components on the lipid nanoparticle (Lipid Nano Particle, LNP) delivery system. EG-COVID is expected to have higher safety than LNP-based mRNA vaccines.”

Furthermore, “EG-COVID can be produced in a lyophilized formulation, allowing refrigerated storage at 2~8℃, which is an advantage,” he said. “This aspect will enhance competitiveness not only for domestic distribution after product approval but also for technology export or finished product export targeting overseas markets where securing ultra-low temperature cooling systems is difficult, except for some advanced countries.”

IGEN is closely monitoring the increasing international spread of the Delta variant virus and is continuing non-clinical animal experiments on variant viruses currently underway. In the second half of the year, non-clinical experiments on new variant viruses will also be conducted concurrently.

An IGEN official stated, “IGEN believes that the development of domestically sourced materials is necessary in the commercial production phase and is collaborating with domestic companies to conduct research on the localization of some materials.”

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