Korean scientists say they developed oral drug against COVID-19
An illustration is intended to show how CP-COV03, or Xafty, works against COVID-19 in the body. Image courtesy of Hyundai Bioscience
A group of scientists, primarily from South Korean universities, has confirmed the efficacy of an oral anti-viral treatment, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, against COVID-19 after a clinical trial.
If a later-stage trial is successful and the medication is approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the drug could be available next year.
Developed by Korea’s biotech company Hyundai Bioscience, the drug was found to address major COVID-19 symptoms listed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including cough, headache, sore throat, nausea and chills.
The findings were published in the latest edition of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.
“We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 300 patients to learn that CP-COV03 was effective in improving COVID-19 symptoms for more than 48 hours, with no serious adverse events,” Dankook University professor Choy Jin-ho told UPI. He is one of the paper’s corresponding co-authors.
“Patients treated with CP-COV03 returned to usual health more quickly and had a lower risk of hospitalization compared to the control group. This shows that the drug is safe and effective in patients suffering from mild to moderate COVID-19,” he said.
Choy said he expects that CP-COV03 to have strong commercial potential because it was based on niclosamide, a well-known medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections.
“Niclosamide’s clinical use has been limited due to poor solubility and bioavailability. However, our study indicates that niclosamide-based CP-COV03 works as a safer and more effective alternative to previous COVID-19 treatments such as Paxlovid,” Choy said.
Hyundai Bioscience noted that the Seoul-based company would develop CP-COV03 as a versatile anti-viral treatment for a range of diseases, beyond just COVID-19.
“We are prepared to produce CP-COV03 as a broad-spectrum treatment once we are authorized to do so in our target countries,” Hyundai Bioscience CEO Bae Byoung-jun said in a phone interview.
“To use CP-COV03 as a treatment for dengue fever, for example, we have received approval to start a seamless phase II/III clinical trial in Vietnam. We hope to launch the study this year, with the aim of bringing the drug to market next year,” he said.