Biotech firm in Singapore hoping to release new covid-19 treatment by 2021

SINGAPORE — Another Covid-19 treatment by homegrown biotech company Humming bird Bioscience aims and joins significant names in making steps to battle COVID-19, could open up in Singapore beyond by early 2021

Company co-founder said the experimental antibody therapy works by “building a wall around” contaminated cells, points to supply necessary treatment even as big pharmaceutical company make progress in the development of vaccine. 

“The key to tackling this global pandemic is building an arsenal of options, both preventative like vaccines, and treatments … like antibody therapies,” Jerome Boyd-Kirkup said.

News comes as trusts for making sure a COVID-19 vaccine got a boost Monday, Moderna U.S. based pharmaceutical said its test antibody had demonstrated 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19. Followed by Pfizer U.S. drugmaker and BioNTech German partner said their vaccine is more than 90% effective.

After company received an approval from the Health authorities a small-scale human trials of Hummingbird 115 began in Singapore last month. They are expecting a progress to a larger tests, as phase three trials beyond by December in Singapore, as the company aims for a new year batch of the treatment.

“We’re aiming for early 2021 for widespread accessibility of this therapy to patients,” said Boyd-Kirkup.

In any case, he included it’s “a small early to speculate” what the treatment’s pricing models may be.

When it was launched in Singapore in the year 2015, Hummingbird Bioscience for all intents and purposes pharmaceutical has received $65 million from investors including South Korea’s SK Holdings and Mirae Asset Capital to support its sites across Asia, Europe and the U.S, which literally is quite significant. Boyd-Kirkup basically said the company mostly is not bound by any distribution agreements, and is instead working with partners and regulators internationally to kind of deliver treatments “where they’re needed in a particularly big way.