S. Korea approves Phase III trial of SK Bioscience's COVID-19 vaccine

SK Bioscience Co

10/08/2021 04:33

By Sangmi Cha
    SEOUL, Aug 10 (Reuters) - South Korea gave vaccine developer
SK Bioscience  302440.KS  the green light on Tuesday for a Phase
III study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate at a time of vaccine
shortages, when a spurt in infections is fuelling demand.
    The clinical trial of GBP510, the candidate for the first
domestic vaccine, will weigh its immunogenicity and safety
against AstraZeneca Plc's  AZN.L  vaccine, drug safety minister
Kim Gang-lip told a news conference.
    Three thousand of the 3,990 adults in the trial will receive
the experimental vaccine and 990 will get AstraZeneca doses,
with an interval of four weeks, Kim said.
    In a statement, SK Bioscience said data from early trials of
80 healthy adults who received the two-dose protein-based
vaccine showed they all induced neutralising antibodies against
the virus. 
    Shares of the company, which debuted in March, rose as much
as 29.5% to hit a record on Tuesday, outperforming a decline of
0.6% in the benchmark index  .KS11 .
    SK is also a contract manufacturer of vaccines for
AstraZeneca and Novavax Inc  NVAX.O . 
    South Korea, with a tally of 213,987 infections and 2,134
deaths, has fully vaccinated 15.4% of its population of 52
million, largely using doses from AstraZeneca, Pfizer  PFE.N 
and Moderna Inc  MRNA.O . 
    But on Monday, the government said Moderna would deliver
less than half this month's planned shipment, due to production
issues.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PG07K
    The government had earlier said seven local drugmakers were
set to launch the final phase of clinical trials in the year's
latter half.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PC0CR
    SK is the world's second firm to try a comparative trial
with another vaccine after French biotech Valneva's  VLS.PA 
Phase III trial against the AstraZeneca shot, the drug safety
ministry said.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LZ0EO

 (Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and
Clarence Fernandez)
 ((sangmi.cha@thomsonreuters.com;))