Chairman Lee Nak-yon of the ruling Democratic Party will volunteer for a clinical trial for a COVID-19 cure or vaccine as South Korean firms struggle to secure enough participants, the party said Tuesday.

Lee will provide his data as part of a campaign initiated by the Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials, a body under the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Lee has undergone four coronavirus tests, which all came out negative, after coming into contact with someone with COVID-19.

Along with Lee, 10 other party officials also decided to join the campaign, including Rep. Han Jeoung-ae, chief policymaker of the party, Rep. Yoon Hu-duk and Rep. Kim Min-seok.

Making it official, the governing party’s K-New Deal Committee hosted a signing ceremony and a forum on the COVID-19 treatment project at the National Assembly in Seoul.

During the debate session, Kwon Ki-sung, head of the research and development unit at Celltrion, presented the interim results of its clinical trials and discussed a prospective antibody therapy for COVID-19.

Celltrion’s candidate CT-P59 is currently undergoing phase 2 and 3 trials both at home and abroad on patients with mild and moderate cases of COVID-19.

Facing setbacks with participant recruitment and retention, only five upcoming clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment and vaccine candidates have enough participants enrolled, out of 24 approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)