S.Korea's Genexine begins human trial of coronavirus vaccine

Genexine

19/06/2020 08:58

SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - Biotech firm Genexine Inc
 095700.KQ  has launched a human clinical trial of an
experimental COVID-19 vaccine in South Korea, saying it has
become the first company in the country to test such a vaccine
candidate on people.
    Genexine said it enrolled the trial's first participants on
Friday, and that it expects preliminary data on safety, drug
tolerance and immune response from the trial in September.
    Shares of Genexine jumped more than 14% on Friday.
    "If everything goes as planned, we aim to complete all
stages of our human clinical trial by the end of 2021," said a
Genexine official.
    Woo Jung-won, executive vice president in charge of
Genexine's development division, told Reuters the trial follows
"positive results of our DNA vaccine in animal tests, including
primates."
    Genexine's phase 1 trial in South Korea will involve 40
healthy participants, with a second phase to be conducted in the
second half of the year with 150 participants in countries
including Indonesia and Thailand, a Genexine official told
Reuters.
    The project is a collaboration between the International
Vaccine Institute, drug manufacturer Binex Co Ltd  053030.KQ 
and biotech firm GenNBio Inc  072520.KQ  as well as the
state-run Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology and
Pohang University of Science & Technology.
    The World Health Organization website lists 13 experimental
coronavirus vaccines as currently being tested on humans. 
    South Korean pharmaceutical maker Celltrion Inc  068270.KS 
said early this month it aims to start an in-human COVID-19 drug
trial in July. Others including SK Bioscience and Green Cross
Corp  006280.KS  have said they are at the beginning stage of
COVID-19 vaccine development.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DE0OO

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S.Korea's Celltrion aims to start in-human COVID-19 drug trial
in July     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DE0OO
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 (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Additional reporting by Sangmi
Cha; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
 ((Heekyong.Yang@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 6936 1470;))