Enzychem Lifesciences 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. 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.