Worldwide sales of Regkirona (active ingredient: regdanvimab), a COVID-19 antibody drug developed by South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion Inc, has begun. Celltrion Healthcare Co Ltd, the marketing arm of Celltrion, announced on Monday that it has signed a contract with a Pakistani state-owned company Wah Industries Limited to export 100,000 vials of Regkirona. The total supply is a sufficient amount to administer to about 30,000 people. The contractee is a subsidiary of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), the largest defense contractor under Pakistan's Ministry of National Defense.
The plan is to administer the first batch to Pakistani soldiers and the public.
To assist with educating local doctors and nurses who will be in charge of administering Regkirona, Celltrion Healthcare has decided to send medical personnel to Pakistan.
As of 2019, Pakistan has a population of 216.6 million and is currently facing great difficulties due to COVID-19. The daily number of new COVID-19 cases in the country recently reached an average of about 4,000, while the total number of confirmed cases has exceeded 850,000.
Celltrion Healthcare is hoping that Regkirona will improve the COVID-19 situation in Pakistan and significantly reduce the work burden of local medical staff.
"In addition to Pakistan, we are currently discussing with various countries including Europe, Central and South America, India, and other countries to export Regkirona to," said an official of Celltrion Group.
"Separate from this, the supply of Regkirona that has been helping to curb the spread of COVID-19 at home will continue stably like it is happening now."
In February, Regkirona received conditional marketing authorization by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of South Korea for treating high-risk patients who have mild symptoms of COVID-19. It has been administered to 2,700 people in South Korea.
Recently, Celltrion completed enrolling a total of 1,300 patients from 13 countries including South Korea, the U.S., Spain, and Romania and administered the patients with the drug for global Phase III clinical trial, and is analyzing the data.
(With ANI inputs)
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