GC Pharma obtains IND approval for phase 2 clinical trial of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Sang-hyun = GC Green Cross announced on the 11th that it has received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for a phase 2 clinical trial plan (IND) for a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

Phase 2 clinical trials will be conducted on healthy adults aged 19 to 85. GC Green Cross plans to begin administering the drug to patients within the year and submit a phase 3 clinical trial plan next year.

An mRNA vaccine is a vaccine that uses mRNA, which contains the genetic information of the virus. The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and Moderna is a representative mRNA vaccine.

Vaccines made based on mRNA technology are difficult to develop, but once created, they have the advantage of being able to quickly respond to mutations by replacing only the genetic information of the virus.

GC Green Cross is carrying out a government project hosted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency with the goal of becoming self-sufficient in domestically produced mRNA vaccines by 2028.

A GC Green Cross official said, “The application area of ​​the mRNA platform technology, which was focused on preventing infectious diseases, is rapidly expanding,” and added, “Based on our own platform, we will pursue commercialization of the COVID-19 vaccine and expansion of the pipeline.”