Bukwang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced that they concluded 60 patients recruitment for the clinical trial of covid-19 treatment with Levovir. Bukwang is going to file the data right after the final patient’s clinical progression and submit it to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for the next steps.
Clevudine, the active ingredient of Levovir®, is an antiviral drug fully developed by Bukwang and was launched as fourth in worldwide and first in Asia anti-hepatitis B. It has been under development for treating COVID-19 in the moderate stage since April 2020.
Levovir® granted a patent on Aug. 11th 2020 with its experimental data in human lung cells (CALU-3 cells) where Remdesivir was used as positive control, and in non-human primate kidney cells (VERO cells) where lopinavir-ritonavir, and chloroquine were also tested. PCT application has also been filed on 5th August.
Bukwang Pharmaceutical has been planning another clinical trial with Levovir® to find out if it would reduce the infectivity of the virus through cell culture. This study is going to start in February and has been expected to show its competitiveness as an antiviral drug in covid-19 disease. 40 patients from mild to moderate stage will be recruited in 10 hospitals.