GC Biopharma confirms safety of flu vaccine in phase 1 trial

South Korea's leading pharmaceutical company GC Biopharma Corp. said on Thursday that it has confirmed the safety and immunogenicity of the patch-type influenza vaccine MIMIX-Flu, which is under development jointly with Vaxess Technologies of the United States, in the interim clinical trial.

MIMIX-Flu is a product that combines GC Biopharma's flu vaccine antigen with Vaxess' patch-based subcutaneous drug delivery system, and the speed and time of drug delivery can be controlled by attaching a micro-needle to the patch to slowly release the drug.

The company's research team evaluated the safety and reactivity of the drug by having healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 39 wear the vaccine patch for 5 minutes.

As a result, side effects caused by the vaccine patch were less severe than conventional vaccines delivered by syringes, a company official said. He added that the seroconversion rate, which indicates the rate at which antibodies are produced by the vaccine, also exceeded the approval standards for flu vaccines stipulated by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The research team plans to continue follow-up observations for up to 180 days to evaluate the vaccine's long-term safety.

Write to Jung-Eun Kim at likesmile@hankyung.com