Aims to Start Commercial Production in H1 of 2022
SK bioscience is working on GBP510, a COVID-19 vaccine that is expected to be the first to be commercialized by a Korean company. It has become the first South Korean COVID-19 vaccine candidate in clinical trial phase 3 and the second candidate in the world employing the method of comparison in that phase, to the AstraZeneca vaccine to be specific.
GBP510 is a recombinant vaccine inducing an immune response by injecting the surface antigen protein of the COVID-19 virus made by genetic recombination. According to SK bioscience, GBP510, developed in cooperation with the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, comes with GSK’s immune booster, showed positive immune response and safety results in the first and second phases, and is expected to become commercially available in the first half of next year.
“In our test on 80 adults, a neutralizing antibody was formed in everyone after vaccine and booster administration,” the company explained, adding, “GBP510’s neutralizing antibody induction level is five to eight times or more the level of cured persons’ serum panels and the administration caused no serious abnormal reaction at all.”
The other COVID-19 vaccine developers in South Korea are picking up speed as well. Last month, the Indonesian government approved the second and third phases of Genexine, which entered the second phase in South Korea for the first time. Quratis is working on an mRNA vaccine and Celltrion recently initiated mRNA vaccine development. The Hanmi-GC-ST Pharm consortium is aiming to produce 100 million doses of mRNA vaccine by next year.