Chong Kun Dang's anticoagulant and acute pancreatitis treatment Nafabeltan (ingredient: nafamostat) received approval to run phase 2 clinical trials to develop it as a Covid-19 therapy.

The company plans to confirm the therapeutic effect by administering Nafabeltan to 100 Covid-19 patients with moderate and severe pneumonia for 10 days in the study. The company has chosen Russia for conducting the clinical trials as the country continues to report more than 5,000 newly confirmed cases a day, allowing it to secure participants easily.

Chong Kun Dang will conduct phase 2 clinical trials on Nafabeltan in Russia, an anticoagulant and acute pancreatitis treatment, to reposition it as a Covid-19 therapy. (Chong Kun Dang)

It expects to complete the trial by the end of 2020, and plans to apply for emergency approval in Korea and overseas if the trials end up successful.

Nafamostat, the main ingredient of Nafabeltan, has confirmed the potential to be repositioned into a Covid-19 therapy in a study conducted by Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

IPK found that Napamostat showed the best antiviral efficacy against Covid-19 in lung cells according to comparison and analysis of the effects of various drugs in human lung cells.

Chong Kun Dang also signed a joint research agreement with the IPK and Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences for developing Covid-19 treatment and received approval for phase 2 clinical trials in Korea.

"The clinical trials in Russia will speed up developing the Covid-19 treatment to help resolve the global pandemic crisis," a Chong Kun Dang official said. "We will conduct more studies in other nations to develop Covid-19 therapy by using the IPK's global network."

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