SK Bioscience to build vaccines platform for future virus spreads

Vaccines company SK Bioscience will build a research and development platform that will allow a speedy response to future outbreaks of mutant viruses, the company said Monday.

COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome are ribonucleic acid coronaviruses that endlessly transform to outlive treatments.

Developing vaccines for coronaviruses, therefore, generally requires one to five years. SK Bioscience said it envisions to shorten that by understanding what R&D processes will be most effective.

The company said it will spin off on its cervical cancer vaccines program to develop the platform, which will be ready in approximately two years.

As of Monday, Korea had confirmed an accumulated total of 833 cases of COVID-19 infected patients in the country. Eight have died and 18 were sent home upon being declared fully recovered. The city of Daegu has 483 confirmed cases and the adjacent North Gyeongsang Province has 198. The capital Seoul had 31 confirmed cases.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)