A manufacturing plant of SK bioscience in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

The government has signed a pre-order to buy 10 million vaccine doses being developed by SK bioscience, a local biotech affiliate of SK Group, advancing a swift and stable supply of a domestically produced key agent needed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities said Monday.

A portion of the doses will be released in the latter half of this year, conditioned upon the approval following the ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials overseen by local and overseas health institutions. Among them are the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the U.K. and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The success in the development of the first domestically manufactured vaccine will pave the way for the SK affiliate's local peers, functioning as valid reference material to hasten the rollout of similar agents. Currently, all COVID-19 vaccines are imported.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and SK bioscience, the two signed the order agreement for 10 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate GBP510.

GBP510 is a synthetic antigen vaccine developed jointly by the SK affiliate and the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) under the University of Washington.

It features the characteristics of an "adjuvant technology" by GlaxoSmithKline, a U.K.-headquartered pharmaceutical firm.

GlaxoSmithKline says adjuvant is added to some vaccines to "enhance the immune response, thereby creating a stronger and longer-lasting immunity against infections than the vaccine alone."

KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said the agency is seeking approval for the vaccine before July.

"A Phase 3 clinical trial is in progress, and we expect the market release will be possible in the second half of the year," she said at a regular KDCA briefing.

SK bioscience is currently producing vaccines in partnerships with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical firm, and Novavax, its U.S. peer, after signing agreements on contract manufacturing and contract development and manufacturing.