Hyundai Bio Applies for Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Oral COVID-19 Treatment

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jung] Hyundai Bio announced on the 1st that it has applied to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for a Phase 1 clinical trial plan of the antiviral drug 'CP-COV03,' an oral improved drug developed using niclosamide for the treatment of COVID-19.

The clinical trial will be conducted at Seoul Gangnam St. Mary's Hospital. The trial will involve 18 healthy adults, with drug manufacturing handled by Yu Young Pharmaceutical and clinical trial outsourcing by Dt&CRO.

Niclosamide, developed by Bayer in 1958 as an anthelmintic, is a drug that, in addition to the intracellular virus replication inhibition mechanism possessed by oral antiviral drugs for COVID-19 being developed by Merck, Pfizer, and others, also has mechanisms for intracellular virus degradation and lung injury suppression.

However, niclosamide has not been properly repurposed or redeveloped due to its extremely low bioavailability and excessively short half-life.

Hyundai Bio stated, "CP-COV03 recently demonstrated excellent antiviral efficacy in potency tests conducted by a government-funded research institute, where it was administered twice daily to COVID-19-infected hamsters."

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