SK bioscience said on the 29th it was selected as the second bio investment company by the Public Growth Fund. The company plans to use this as a springboard to accelerate late-stage clinical trials of its pneumococcal vaccine aimed at the global market.
The company held a regular board meeting that day and gave final approval to a 300 billion won fundraising plan based on the Public Growth Fund. The decision follows the Public Growth Fund's fund management committee selecting SK bioscience as a recipient the previous day.
The Public Growth Fund is a public-private policy finance program created to foster national advanced strategic industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, bio, and secondary batteries. In the bio sector, after a low-interest loan of 85 billion won to BTGEN (STgen Bio) in April, SK bioscience was selected as the second recipient.
SK bioscience plans to invest the secured funds in the global phase 3 research and development (R&D) of GBP410, a 21-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate being co-developed with France's Sanofi. It will also use the funds to expand its vaccine manufacturing plant in Andong, North Gyeongsang, and to upgrade production capacity.
GBP410 is a next-generation vaccine candidate that expands the range of preventable serotypes compared with existing pneumococcal vaccines. Global phase 3 trials are underway, and the company is preparing for commercialization with a goal of announcing key top-line results in the second half of next year.
Industry officials say the support goes beyond conventional bio assistance focused on production facilities and recognizes domestic corporations' research and development capabilities and global competitiveness. In particular, with stable financing now possible for global late-stage clinical trials that require hundreds of billions of won, the move is expected to help improve the environment for developing new drugs and vaccines.
In addition to GBP410, SK bioscience is expanding a pipeline focused on infectious disease responses, including a patch-type flu vaccine, a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) therapeutic, and a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine platform. Early this year, it transferred its headquarters and research institute to Songdo, Incheon, bringing together R&D, process development (PD), business development (BD), and marketing functions in one place to strengthen global business capabilities.
Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK bioscience, said, "Being selected as a corporation supported by the Public Growth Fund is the result of recognition for our vaccine development capabilities and global business competitiveness," adding, "We will continue to invest in developing key pipelines and building production infrastructure to strengthen vaccine sovereignty and secure capabilities to respond to future infectious diseases."
Meanwhile, SK bioscience supplies its independently developed flu and varicella vaccines through the National Immunization Program (NIP). It also developed Korea's first shingles vaccine, which is used in local government vaccination support programs, and is strengthening its infectious disease response capabilities by promoting the development of a cell culture-based avian influenza (H5N1) vaccine.