This image, provided by South Korean vaccine maker SK Bioscience Co., shows its CEO Ahn Jae-yong speaking during an online press conference on March 31, 2022.
SEOUL, March 31 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean vaccine maker SK Bioscience Co. will expand its business portfolio to secure a new growth engine with the aim of becoming a global top-tier biotechnology firm by 2025, its chief said Thursday.
Celebrating the one-year anniversary of its initial public offering (IPO) on the main bourse, the bio unit of South Korea’s family-controlled conglomerate SK Group announced its business plan that goes beyond the vaccine sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The successful IPO raised the company’s market capitalization to nearly 11 trillion won (US$9.1 billion), up from 4.9 trillion won, emerging within the top 40 most valued companies.
“We are eying another leap beyond the vaccine sector to advance into the biotechnology sector,” CEO Ahn Jae-yong said during an online press conference, adding the company is eying various new businesses to move to an endemic phase from the pandemic.
Ahn said the company will advance into new businesses, such as cell and gene therapy (CGT), and take over other small biotech firms based on funds from the IPO and accumulated cash.
The company became the leading local contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), specializing in the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines after securing a contract with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
“We expect CDMO to be stable for the next two to three years,” Ahn said, adding the company provided AstraZeneca doses globally without disclosing the exact number.
The bio expert said the company is in talks with a number of global giants, including Novavax Inc., to increase its CDMO business and is preparing an additional pipeline at its plant in Andong, about 270 kilometers south of Seoul.
Also, the company is thoroughly preparing for the successful launch of the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine after securing $3.6 million in research funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
GBP510 is the country’s first homegrown vaccine candidate to enter the last phase of its clinical trial.
SK Bioscience expects an emergency approval from South Korean and European drug authorities in the first half of 2022.
The company also earlier signed an agreement with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to extend its capacity reservations for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines through the end of 2022.
Last year, the two initially signed the agreement to reserve manufacturing capacity at SK Bioscience’s Andong plant in 2020 and 2021 for the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines designated by the CEPI.
(Yonhap)
