Chong Kun Dang’s COVID-19 treatment proved effective at clinical trials

Chong Kun Dang Group, a South Korean pharmaceutical companyannoCOVID-19 treatment currently under trials to be effective for patients with critical symptoms in clinical phase 2 trial.

The company said Thursday that Napabeltan, which Chong Kun Dang is developing as COVID-19 treatment, was about 2.9 times more effective for high-risk patients compared to the standard treatment group with regular treatment. Typically used as blood anticoagulant and treatment for acute pancreatitis, Napabeltan is currently being tested to explore its potential as coronavirus treatment.

The clinical phase 2 trial on Napabeltan, which was conducted in Russia on some 100 patients with a serious case of COVID-19, showed a 61.1% improvement in symptoms on high-risk patents, superior to 11.1% for standard treatment group. Over the 28 days of test period, the symptom improvement rate with napabeltan was as high as 94.4% overshadowing the 61.1% of improvement rate for the standard treatment group. “The test found that napabeltan’s treatment effect was 2.9 times higher compared to standard treatment with the external variables adjusted,” said an official from Chong Kun Dang.

Recovery was quicker too. The napabeltan-treated group reached recovery in 10 days, clearly shorter than the 14 days for the standard group. Notably, four patients died among the standard treatment group when no death occurred in the napabeltan treatment group.

Experts remain circumspect on the results. “The significance of the test is that we’ve discovered the possibility for the treatment of high-risk patients,” said Bang Ji-hwan, a professor at Infectious Disease Department at Seoul National University. “It will take at least Phase 3 trial to figure out the effectiveness more clearly.” “It will likely have a limited effect of addressing the concomitant symptoms of the coronavirus rather than killing it,” said Jeong Gi-seok, a pulmonology professor at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.


Seong-Mo Kim mo@donga.com · Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com