Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) CEO Dr. Youngmee Jee delivered a talk at the 'FOREFRONT OF VIROLOGY COVID-19 WEBINAR SERIES' hosted by the Global Virus Network (GVN) on August 30 (local time), where she shared IPK’s latest status of COVID-19 research and the future infectious disease preparedness and response strategies.
 

Dr. Jee explained the IPK’s drug repositioning research since 2020 that contributed to the global efforts towards COVID-19 therapeutics development. In search of COVID-19 drug candidates, IPK quickly identified potent candidates and translated them into domestic and overseas clinical trials leveraging its international network. By screening thousands of drugs and compounds, including the US FDA-approved drugs, against SARS-CoV-2 through cell culture experiments, IPK selected four potent drug candidates: ciclesonide, niclosamide, nafamostat, and camostat. The selected drug candidates are now undergoing clinical trials in Mexico, Australia, Senegal, etc. Furthermore, IPK confirmed that the drug candidates had antiviral efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 alpha (UK) and beta (South Africa) variants. 

In particular, Dr. Jee detailed IPK’s strategy to focus on new therapeutics development and vaccine research to benefit global health based on its infectious disease research capabilities and core technologies. 

With the goal of identifying broad-spectrum novel pancoronavirus drug candidates that can treat a wide range of infections caused by various coronaviruses, Dr. Jee said that IPK has initiated the screening of its rich compound library with the high-content/high-throughput screening (HCS/HTS) platform, which are the core technologies of IPK. Additionally, she revealed that IPK will spur the development of COVID-19 therapeutics to respond to variants, investigate the mechanisms of action of the identified COVID-19 drug candidates, and continue with clinical trials to confirm their efficacy. 

Regarding IPK’s vaccine development research, Dr. Jee shared the current status and outlook for the project on short- and mid-to-long-term testing and analysis of immunological profiles of those vaccinated against COVID-19, which is being conducted in cooperation with Korea’s clinical experts at the ASAN Medical Center and the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS). Moreover, she mentioned IPK’s plans to screen new vaccine adjuvants, discover mechanisms of different vaccine platforms, and investigate immunopathology of respiratory viral infections such as COVID-19 and influenza.

In addition, Dr. Jee revealed that IPK will advance its drug discovery platform by combining the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence and omics; strengthen international research cooperation through the Institut Pasteur International Network and the Global Virus Network; and establish an integrated drug discovery pipeline for pandemic response with global partners. 

The Global Virus Network is a coalition of top experts in all types of viruses causing disease in mankind, leading the way in promoting global public health. It cooperates with 65 Centers of Excellence and 11 Affiliates located in 35 countries around the world, and IPK has been actively participating* as a Center of Excellence since 2021 January.
 

* View related press release: https://www.ip-korea.org/community/release_view.php?page=2&board=press&seq=2961