South Korean company to develop combined vaccine for COVID, influenza
Seoul: As 'flurona,' which means having both COVID-19 and influenza at the same time, is recently popping up in many countries, including Israel, Brazil, the U.S., Hungary, and Croatia, concerns on 'twindemic' have emerged.
Currently, the infection rate of the flurona is low, but the mortality rate is six times higher than uninfected people and 2.3 times higher than patients with only COVID-19.
Korean medical experts have also warned the risk of twindemic, and are recommending taking influenza vaccination.
Accordingly, many global pharmaceutical companies are developing a combo vaccine that prevents s COVID-19 and the flu at the same time. In Korea, SK Bioscience has started developing the combo vaccine.
SK bioscience is growing into a domestic and global vaccine developer by continuously making investments and establishing infrastructure for vaccine development. SK Bioscience is aiming to conduct clinical trials of the combo vaccine within the end of this year. SK bioscience is a spin off of SK Chemicals that specializes in vaccine development and manufacture. The foundation for the company's growth was built by acquiring Dongshin Pharmaceuticals in 2001, establishing a vaccine R&D center in 2005, and constructing the Andong L House vaccine center in 2012. SK bioscience's excellent vaccine R&D capabilities and manufacturing system is also attracting global attention.
In 2014, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi, signed a contract with SK bioscience for the co-development of a next-generation's pneumococcal vaccine and, in 2018, the companies signed a contract to license out the technology for producing a cell culture-derived influenza vaccine.
It is planning to develop the combo vaccine based on technology of its flu vaccine 'Sky Cell Flu' and COVID-19 vaccine, which is under development with the aim of obtaining approval in the first half of the year. SK is currently developing the combo vaccine as a synthetic antigen vaccine that combines flu and COVID-19 antigens.
In the global market, the U.S. Moderna is planning to release a combo vaccine that prevents COVID-19, flu, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as early as the fall of 2023.
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