Enzychem Lifesciences Announces Plans to Advance Clinical Trial in South Korea for EC-18 as a Potential Therapeutic for COVID-19 Infection

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., March 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Enzychem Lifesciences (KOSDAQ: 183490) today announced that it is advancing a domestic clinical trial of EC-18, a new coronavirus treatment candidate, in South Korea. The company has also been in communication with the relevant U.S. government authorities for development collaboration.  

On March 3, 2020, the company applied to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Medical Counter Measure (MCM) COVID-19 program. In addition, Enzychem is advancing research collaboration for the development of EC-18 as a potential therapy for COVID-19 with various government authorities and research institutes of China and Korea, two countries highly affected by the virus.

COVID-19 has become a huge global pandemic. Although its seriousness is well known to the public, such as its high infection rate in humans, including fever and respiratory symptoms, which may lead to pneumonia, there is no efficacious prevention or treatment.

Dr. Sun Young Yoon, Head of Enzychem Lifesciences' Bio Research Laboratory in Daejeon, South Korea, said: "EC-18 is a compound which has a mechanism of action to remove pathogens or viruses by enabling immune cells to "engulf" the virus or bacteria and remove them in a short period of time. The compound removes pathogens by capturing the virus or bacteria by binding it to the receptor. EC-18 also recognizes and maximizes the cell's capability to swiftly degrade the pathogen. EC-18 is a platform technology with a mechanism of action to fundamentally treat inflammatory diseases as  EC-18's ability to remove viruses or pathogens minimizes the expression of cytokines and chemokines, which induces inflammation, and prevents the infiltration of immune cells," she added.

In addition, EC-18 has high efficacy to reduce the gathering of inflammatory cells due to rapid removal of damage associated molecular pattern (DAMPs), that accumulate when cells are damaged by radiation and the compound also prevents tissue damage produced by the sudden activity inflammatory cells.

Ki Young Sohn, CEO and Chairman of Enzychem Lifesciences, said: "EC-18 has a mechanism of action with a unique anti-COVID-19 that can swiftly remove it from cells, and we expect that EC-18 may become a strong countermeasure for COVID-19, which is currently evolving as global pandemic."

EC-18 is the company's proprietary compound originally derived from Sika deer antler, which acts as Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRR) (e.g., TLR4) endocytic trafficking accelerator contributing to swift removal of PAMPs/DAMPs. For acute respiratory distress syndrome associated with COVID-19, dysregulation of the TLRs signaling pathway is reported to be relevant. With this unique mechanism of action, the company is developing EC-18 for indications including chemoradiation induced oral mucositis (CRIOM), chemotherapy induced neutropenia (CIN) and acute radiation syndrome (ARS).

About Enzychem Lifesciences Corporation

Enzychem Lifesciences, Corp. (KOSDAQ:183490) is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Seoul, Korea, which is dedicated to developing new drugs and APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients). Since its foundation in 1999, Enzychem Lifesciences has been striving to develop new and innovative treatments for patients with unmet medical needs. The company's lead compound EC-18, is an immune resolution accelerator that has the potential to be used for a variety of indications. For more information on Enzychem Lifesciences, visit www.enzychem.com

The information included in this press release concerns a drug use that has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Media Contact: Ted Kim (Manager of Business Development)

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Enzychem Lifesciences