South Korea on Friday approved an early stage clinical trial of Celltrion Inc's experimental Covid-19 treatment drug, making it the country's first such antibody drug to be tested on humans, according to Reuters.

Drugmakers worldwide are scrambling to develop vaccines and treatments for the flu-like illness caused by the novel coronavirus that has infected nearly 14 million people and killed more than 580,000 globally.

Celltrion's antibody treatment is directed against the surface of the virus and designed to block it from locking on to human cells.

The company plans to enrol 32 healthy volunteers in collaboration with a local hospital for Phase I study of the drug, which demonstrated an up to 100-fold reduction in viral load in animal tests.

It anticipates primary results from these studies by the end of this year and aims to commercialise the drug by early 2021, it said.