Hepatitis Vaccine Has 50% Success Rate

Clinical trial results have confirmed that a vaccine developed to treat hepatitis B by Korean scientists is effective in humans.

Six out of 12 Ukrainian and Lithuanian patients injected with a hepatitis B vaccine developed by biological science professor Sung Young-cheol‘s (50) POSTECH team in 2000 displayed favorable results.

The results of the tests were posted on the online version of “Gene Therapy,” an affiliate of the British scientific journal Nature dated March 10.

Sung’s team injected both Lamibudin, an established hepatitis treatment medication, and the hepatitis B vaccine, into 12 Ukrainian and Lithuanian patients and observed the results over the course of the next year.

Six patients were cured.

The team is currently in the process of receiving approval for clinical trials in Korea. As no laws on clinical experiments are established for vaccines, the approval will be based on gene therapy procedures.

Sung stated that “As early as this summer, we will recruit 45 domestic patients for trials. After this process, we will have to prove the vaccine’s effectiveness on hundreds of patients, so commercialization is still some time away.”

During the clinical experiments, the vaccines will be administered at the internal medicine department (headed by Yoon Seung-gyu) of Gangnam St. Mary’s Hospital at Catholic University.

sohyung@donga.com