SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) — Hyundai Bioscience Co. announced Sunday that it is teaming up with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), a federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research, to develop a broad-spectrum antiviral drug.
Hyundai Bioscience USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Bioscience Co., has signed a Non-Clinical Evaluation Agreement (NCEA) with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the NIH.
Under the contract, Hyundai Bioscience USA will provide Xafty (CP-COV03), a candidate for COVID-19 antivirals, to the NIAID, which will carry out various non-clinical experiments with it.
The partnership between Hyundai Bioscience USA and the NIAID is part of the Antiviral Program for Pandemics (APP) that the U.S. government has established since the COVID-19 pandemic. The APP is focused on producing “safe and effective antivirals to combat” the virus that caused COVID-19, as well as creating “sustainable platforms for targeted drug discovery and development of a robust pipeline of antivirals against viruses with pandemic potential.”
Hyundai Bioscience stated that the two parties will evaluate if Xafty can treat 10 viruses, including MERS and RSV, and keep working together through the phase 2 clinical study.
In June, Hyundai Bioscience submitted the results of the clinical study of Xafty to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency for emergency use authorization on COVID-19. It said the antiviral has demonstrated high efficacy even in the high-risk group for COVID-19.