S.Korea to buy 10 million doses of SK Bioscience's COVID vaccine (updated)

SK Bioscience Co

21/03/2022 06:36

(Adds details, background, company statement)
    By Hyonhee Shin
    SEOUL, March 21 (Reuters) - South Korea has reached a deal
to buy 10 million doses of the country's first experimental
coronavirus vaccine, developed by SK Bioscience Co Ltd
 302440.KS , authorities said on Monday.
    The South Korean company has since August conducted Phase 3
trials of its vaccine candidate, codenamed "GBP510", jointly
developed with the University of Washington's Institute for
Protein Design and aided by global drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK).
    "They aim to secure formal approval in the first half of
this year, and public distribution is expected to begin in the
latter half," Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)
director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
    SK Bioscience said in a statement the deal is worth 200
billion won ($164.6 million) and that it would also supply its
vaccine to the global vaccine sharing facility COVAX once
authorised.
    The drugmaker also produces COVID-19 vaccines developed by
AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc.

($1 = 1,215.3400 won)

 (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sam
Holmes)
 ((hyonhee.shin@thomsonreuters.com;))