● SK bioscience Develops Vaccine for COVID-19 Selected as a Priority Negotiating Partner for Implementation of National Projects

- Project on the “Development of Candidate Substances for Synthetic Antigen-Based COVID-19 Subunit Vaccine” with KCDC underway
- Leading rapid vaccine development with the best vaccine R&D technology in Korea


SK Corp. and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) joined hands to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

SK bioscience announced on the 18th that it has been selected as a priority negotiating partner for the "Development of Candidate Substances for Synthetic Antigen-Based COVID-19 Subunit Vaccine," a national project for the development of COVID-19 vaccine announced by the KCDC.

This national project was pushed by both the public and private sectors to quickly develop a preventive vaccine, taking into account the emerging COVID-19 global pandemic and the number of confirmed cases and deaths in Korea.

For this purpose, the KCDC conducted bids for schools, research institutes, and companies in Korea, and finally selected SK bioscience, as the company possessing the accumulated know-how in all areas related to vaccine approval and commercialization, including clinical trials, manufacturing, and production.

Through this project, the KCDC plans to select the antigenic determinant (a substance that is administered to the human body and causes the body to form antibodies for immunity) based on cases of COVID-19 virus in Korea and genetic information analyzed in Korea and foreign countries and to rapidly develop candidate substances for subunit (antigens containing part of the virus) vaccines.

With the support of the KCDC, SK bioscience will conduct R&D activities such as △ antigenic determinant selection and gene synthesis required for the production of COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate substances △ manufacture, production and securing of various candidate substances △ immunogenicity assessment analysis method development, and △ evaluation of candidate substances in animals.

Earlier last month, SK bioscience launched an R&D program to secure a platform for vaccine manufacturing technology that can be applied quickly should a pandemic from a new infectious disease occur.

Preparations are currently underway for nonclinical (veterinary clinical) cases, which aim to develop a firmly secure platform considering the universal and highly pathogenic viruses with which vaccines can be quickly developed through an identical process, even when a novel respiratory infection virus strain emerges.

Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK bioscience, said, “We are equipped with a system capable of mass production as soon as the new vaccine development is completed through Andong L House, a vaccine factory that boasts the world＇s best facilities and scale.” He added, “We will tightly cooperate with the government to secure the technology required to proactively respond to national emergencies.”

SK bioscience is a new vaccine company that was spun off from SK chemicals in July 2008. The company has developed vaccines independently, which include: SKYCellflu, the first cell-cultured trivalent flu vaccine in Korea, SKYCellflu Quadrivalent, the world＇s first cell-cultured quadrivalent flu vaccine, SKY Zoster, the world＇s second herpes zoster vaccine, and SKY Varicella, the second varicella vaccine developed in Korea.



# Photo description: SK bioscience researchers are conducting R&D for vaccine development.