Ildong Pharmaceutical said Wednesday it has decided to jointly develop S-217622, ​​a candidate material for oral Covid-19 treatment, with Shionogi Pharmaceutical, a Japanese drugmaker.

The drug candidate, developed by Shionogi, is a substance developed for treating Covid-19 orally by taking the drug once a day for a total of five days.

According to studies conducted by Shionogi, S-217622 showed excellent safety and tolerability and has shown that it can inhibit 3CL-protease, present only in the Covid-19 virus, to prevent virus proliferation. Furthermore, in non-clinical studies, Shingoi also confirmed the treatment showed a similar level of virus proliferation inhibitory ability for all Covid-19 variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

Upon entering the cooperation agreement, Ildong announced that it had received investigational new drug approval for a Korean phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of S-217622 from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Wednesday.

The company plans to conduct clinical trials in Korea for 200 asymptomatic or mild and moderate patients at Inha University Hospital.

Shionogi is also conducting trials globally in countries such as Japan and Singapore.

The two companies aim to obtain emergency use approval for S-217622 in Korea in the first half of 2022. If they succeed in commercializing S-217622, Ildong plans to produce the treatment locally through technology transfer.

"If commercialization is successful, we plan to take charge of supplying the treatment in Korea," a company official said to Korea Biomedical Review on Thursday.

Ildong CEO Yoon Woong-sub and Shionogi CEO Isao Teshirogi also said, "The joint development of S-217622 is not just for personal gain or business, but a social obligation of pharmaceutical companies to resolve the Covid-19 crisis."

The two CEOs added that taking people's desire to see a new therapeutic agent as a responsibility, the two companies will actively cooperate for successful development.