SK Bioscience said that it has set about to develop a vaccine to cope with Covid-19 variants with financial support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international private organization.
The Korean company will receive up to $14.2 million (about 16 billion won) in research and development funds from CEPI to develop Covid-19 mutants using the development platform of GBP510, for which clinical trials are now underway.
SK Bioscience said it had also received additional funding of a maximum of $12.5 million from CEPI to help finance the manufacturing process's development for expanding the GBP510 process to a commercially viable level.
"The support from CEPI is aimed to respond more broadly to the threat of the Covid-19 mutant virus, and SK Bioscience plans to build an all-round response system against the Covid-19 virus based on its globally recognized technology," the company said.
SK Bioscience stressed that it plans to continue discussions with CEPI during the phase 3 clinical trials and commercialization phase to launch GBP510 successfully.
"The company is pleased to cooperate with CEPI once again for the research and development of a Covid-19 mutant virus vaccine," SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong said. "If the company makes the most of its Covid-19 vaccine platform, it will be able to complete the research for using the vaccine to treat Covid-19 variants quickly."
CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett also said, "If our efforts to terminate the pandemic are to bear fruits, we need to cope swiftly with the spread of Covid-19 variants.”
Hatchett stressed that to achieve the goal, CEPI has launched a five-year plan to reduce and eliminate the risk of epidemic diseases, including the novel coronavirus.
"If we are to achieve this future, we must act now by investing in crucial R&D to optimize our vaccination strategies and technologies," he added.
GBP510 is a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that SK Biosciences is developing in collaboration with the University of Washington with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.