ST Pharm, an affiliate of Dong-A Socio Group, said it would voluntarily withdraw its investigational new drug (IND) application for STP2250, an mRNA-based Covid-19 prevention booster vaccine, for phase 1/2a clinical trials.

The company made this decision due to two main factors: the challenge of recruiting domestic clinical patients amid the endemic phase of Covid-19 and the perceived lack of commercialization value. This information is based on ST Pharm’s public filing on Tuesday.

ST Pharm had originally planned to conduct a phase 1/2a study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of STP2250, a booster vaccine to prevent Covid-19 in healthy adults aged 19 and older.

The study was initially scheduled to be conducted at the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, with the aim of recruiting a minimum of 90 subjects and completing the trial by December 2024.