SK Bioscience Ready to Produce Novavax Vaccine

SK Bioscience is ready to start producing Navavax's coronavirus vaccine in industrial quantities here.

The Korean firm on Monday applied for a license at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to mass-produce the U.S. vaccine.

The review by the ministry is expected to take around 40 days, and about 40 million doses of the vaccine will be made for use here in Korea while the rest will be exported.

The Novavax vaccine became available later than the other currently available vaccines but was engineered from the genetic sequence of coronavirus with nanoparticle technology and has almost no side effects.

The Novavax vaccine can be stored at temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, making it easier to store and transport, and does not have to be thawed.

Unlike mRNA vaccines such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, Novavax uses the same conventional methods as vaccines for ordinary flu, hepatitis B and cervical cancer, which have been proven to be safe.

Around 50 similar vaccines are in clinical trials around the world, and Indonesia granted emergency authorization for the Novavax vaccine on Nov. 1.

SK Bioscience is also developing its own synthetic-antigen-based vaccine, which is undergoing phase 3 clinical trials. It is expected to be given as a booster in underdeveloped countries because it is cheap to manufacture and can be stored in the refrigerator.