SK bioscience's COVID-19 vaccine plant in South Korea gets European nod

SK Bioscience Co

17/05/2021 04:09

By Sangmi Cha
    SEOUL, May 17 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK bioscience
 302440.KS  said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine facility had
received European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
certification, paving the way for exports to the bloc.
    The certification approves the production and processing
line and quality system of SK bioscience's Andong plant, which
produces COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca Plc  AZN.L 
and Novavax Inc  NVAX.O . It will enable SK to export vaccines
to the European markets.
    SK bioscience is also looking to obtain the Current Good
Manufacturing Practice regulations enforced by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, it said in a statement.
    It has been supplying the AstraZeneca vaccine it has
produced to the domestic market and the global vaccine sharing
facility COVAX.
    SK bioscience also has a license agreement with Novavax to
produce 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for South Korea as
well as a contract development and manufacturing deal for global
supply.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2KL0LU 
    "The global vaccine demand is expected to surge explosively
driven by the pandemic ... Based on the globally recognised
high-level technology, we will accelerate our business
expansion," SK bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong said in a statement.
    Shares in SK bioscience jumped as much as 8.6%,
outperforming a 0.1% drop in the broader market  .KS11 . 
($1 = 1,131.7300 won)

 (Reporting by Sangmi Cha, Additional reporting by Heekyong
Yang; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
 ((Sangmi.Cha@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5646; Reuters
Messaging: sangmi.cha.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))