Daewoong to receive further gov't funding for Covid-19 treatment

Daewoong Pharmaceutical's headquarters in Gangnam, southern Seoul. [DAEWOONG PHARMACEUTICAL]

Daewoong Pharmaceutical will receive government funding to establish production facilities for its Covid-19 treatment candidate.

The company said Monday that its coronavirus treatment candidate DWRX2003 made it into the round of government-funded pharmaceutical projects to receive support for facility expansion.

Procedures will be finalized in January after a final screening process. According to a Daewoong spokesman, the DWRX2003 candidate safely fulfills all standards.

After the government’s selection is finalized, Daewoong will receive a maximum 19 trillion won ($17.2 billion) from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which accounts for half of the 38-trillion-won budget the pharmaceutical company had set to invest in facilities reserved to mass produce DWRX2003.

The drug candidate is based on niclosamide, a substance that was already being used in Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s anthelmintic. Earlier this month, DWRX2003 also received government funding worth 5 billion won to cover clinical trials by September 2021.

DWRX2003 has a mechanism to suppress the growth of the coronavirus by activating existing behaviors of human cells. The company had confirmed its efficacy via animal tests and found that the substance had the effect of reducing the virus’s activity in lung tissue and nasal discharge during Covid-19 infections.

The substance is currently conducting Phase 2 trials in Korea.

“We plan to roll out analysis results of global Phase 2 trials and request for an emergency use authorization in the first half of 2021,” Daewoong Pharmaceutical said in a Monday statement.

The company’s other Covid-19 treatment candidate, Foistar Tab, received a nod to undergo Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials last week. It was originally released as a treatment for reflux esophagitis, an acid reflux condition. Daewoong plans to request emergency use authorization for Foistar Tab next month and hopes to officially launch them as Covid-19 drugs that month.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]