A Platform for Vaccine Development
SK Bioscience plans to secure a vaccine development platform to respond quickly to rapidly spreading viruses such as COVID-19, MERS- and SARS-related coronaviruses, the company announced on Feb. 24.
The company plans to secure a platform that allows it to develop a vaccine for a novel respiratory infectious disease virus using the same process as that for other viruses. The company plans to conduct research and development based on various vaccine manufacturing technologies such as cell culture, bacterial culture, gene recombination and protein conjugation, and molecular biological know-how such as antigenic protein design, gene synthesis and cloning.
In 2017, SK Bioscience applied for a patent on MERS S protein immunogen composition and its production method based on its R&D on a MERS vaccine.
Meanwhile, SK Bioscience was spun off from SK Chemicals in July 2018 to specialize in vaccine development and manufacturing. The company has developed Korea's first trivalent cell-cultured influenza vaccine “SKYCellflu” and the world's first quadrivalent cell-cultured influenza vaccine “SKYCellflu Quadrivalent.”