S.Korea Celltrion's candidate COVID-19 drug gets approval for special-case use

Celltrion Pharm

15/12/2020 08:47

By Joyce Lee
    SEOUL, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Doctors can administer South
Korean pharmaceutical maker Celltrion Inc's  068270.KS 
candidate COVID-19 antibody treatment to patients with
life-threatening conditions, health authorities said on Tuesday.
    The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved CT-P59 under
its patient treatment scheme on Friday, its website showed.
    Under the scheme, patients with life-threatening conditions
and with no other means of treatment can receive drugs still
undergoing clinical trials, the ministry said.
    Celltrion is conducting second- and third-phase clinical
trials for CT-P59, and plans to seek emergency-use approval for
the treatment before year-end, a company spokesman said.
    The treatment is expected to be administered to the first
patients "soon", Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
official Kwon Jun-wook said in a briefing on Tuesday.

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com; +82 2 6936 1467;))