À̹ÌÁö È®´ë GeneOne Life Science, Inc., rivaling with Genexine in the development of Korea¡¯s first coronavirus vaccine, is planning to roll out its Covid-19 vaccine early next year, the company¡¯s chief executive Park Young-kun told Maeil Business Newspaper.
The company started coronavirus vaccine development in February last year. A Phase 1/2a clinical trial protocol was approved by Korean health authorities in December and the vaccine codenamed GLS-5310 was given to its first patient late last year. The company plans to speed up clinical development for Phase 2 and 3 trials with an aim of receiving emergency use authorization early next year.
It may be too late for the company to have commercial launch by that time as five to six Covid-19 vaccines already began to be brought to market, but Park said it is never late because current vaccine supplies remain limited. Rather, GeneOne¡¯s DNA vaccine will be competitive as a solution to storage and distribution problems of current vaccines, Park stressed.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë GLS-5310 can be stored at a temperature of 2 to 8 Celsius degrees in contrast to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that require storage temperature of minus 20 to minus 70 degrees. This will enable vaccination even in countries where a cold chain system is not in place. GLS-5310 is more convenient to use than other DNA vaccines. An electroporation device is usually required for delivery of DNA vaccines but GeneOne Life Science is developing a solution that can maximize the DNA vaccine efficacy with simple physical stimulation without such a device, Park explained.
GeneOne Life Science is also developing a cure and a nasal spray prophylactic against Covid-19. GLS-1027, an investigational orally administered cure to reduce inflammation caused by immune responses, is under a Phase 2 clinical trial in the United States, and it was filed for Phase 2 in Korea this month.
Another experimental weapon is GLS-1200, a three times daily nasal spray prophylactic which forms virus-killing nitric oxide in the nose. The company received FDA approval for a Phase 2 clinical trial of the therapy in May last year.
By Lee Jong-hwa and Minu Kim
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]