To Receive US$50mn Financial Support from CEPI
SK Bioscience announced on Dec. 21 that it has started a project to develop a general-purpose vaccine that can respond to both the COVID-19 virus and its variants such as Omicron and Delta. To this end, it will receive US$50 million in initial R&D expenses from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
SK Bioscience is planning to develop a vaccine to prevent sarbecovirus by using the synthetic antigen platform of GBP510, a candidate COVID-19 vaccine currently in the phase 3 clinical trial stage.
Sarbecovirus is a type of coronavirus, which include the COVID-19 virus and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus and their variants. SK Bioscience plans to develop a vaccine effective for the sarbecovirus family and establish a comprehensive response system that can prevent related viruses and variants at once.
SK Bioscience has thus far received US$210.1 million in GBP510 development funds CEPI. The figure will rise to US$260 million when another US$50 million is added.