NKMAX, Positive Signs for COVID-19 Treatment Development... Government Participates in Public Interest Clinical Trials

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] NKMax, a developer of NK (natural killer) cell immuno-oncology drugs, will have its research utilized in a public interest COVID-19 clinical trial research project. Going forward, NKMax’s efforts to develop a COVID-19 treatment are also expected to gain momentum.

On the 18th, NKMax announced that it will participate as a joint researcher with the research team led by Professor Young-Kyung Yoon of Korea University College of Medicine, who was selected as a public interest (COVID-19) clinical trial and research support operator for 2021 by the National Clinical Trial Support Foundation. NKMax’s high-purity allogeneic SNK cells will be used in this clinical trial. This clinical trial is a parallel-assigned phase 1/2 study conducted by the National Clinical Trial Support Foundation to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical efficacy of NK cell therapy for severe COVID-19 patients.

Professor Young-Kyung Yoon, the principal investigator and an infectious disease specialist overseeing COVID-19 confirmed patient care at Korea University College of Medicine, is currently participating in COVID-19 response advisory activities as a member of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases’ Emerging Infectious Disease Countermeasures Committee. She is also the practical manager of the “Clinical Trial Support System Establishment Project for Rapid Development of Infectious Disease Therapeutics and Vaccines” led by the National Infectious Disease Clinical Trial Project Group.

The research team expects that through this project, clinical entry of NK cell therapy for COVID-19 will become easier in the future. They plan to realize the clinical introduction of NK cell therapy and prepare a phase 1/2 clinical trial protocol to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of NK cell therapy for severe COVID-19 patients.

Professor Yoon said, “Korea University Anam Hospital has been selected as a global leading center for clinical trials and plays a representative role in Asia by leading global standards for clinical trials through cooperation with various institutions. We will also strive to enter clinical trials quickly through active collaboration with NKMax in this research project.”

Kim Yong-man, head of research at NKMax, stated, “In prior studies, SNK was confirmed to be activated and able to kill SARS-CoV-2 infected cell lines upon reaction. NK cells have antiviral effects capable of killing infected cells regardless of viral variants (such as Delta, Lambda, etc.) and also possess the ability to regulate hyperimmunity, so the development of treatments for severe COVID-19 patients is highly anticipated.”

NKMax possesses related technologies including high-purity mass proliferation of NK cells, a type of white blood cell responsible for innate immunity. In particular, the allogeneic SNK used in clinical applications is an immune cell therapy that overcomes the low purity, mass proliferation limitations, and low cytotoxicity shown by existing NK cell therapies. It is known to be capable of proliferation over 19 billion-fold and to be a high-purity and highly active NK cell therapy with over 99% purity.

Park Sang-woo, CEO of NKMax, said, “By expanding our scope to include cancer treatment and neurodegenerative disease therapies such as Alzheimer’s using SNK cells currently underway in Korea and the United States, as well as COVID-19 treatment development, we will become a specialized NK cell therapy company that offers hope to patients with various intractable diseases.”

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