'COVID-19 Vaccine Development' SK Bioscience "Pursuing KOSPI Listing... Targeting First Half of Next Year"

Last month, President Moon Jae-in, who visited SK Bioscience, is receiving an explanation about the research facilities from Lee Geon-se, head of the SK Bioscience research team.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] SK Bioscience announced on the 27th that it held a board meeting and decided to pursue a KOSPI listing. It is a vaccine-specialized company newly established after spinning off from SK Chemicals and is currently developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

The company plans to submit a preliminary listing examination application for an initial public offering (IPO) to the Korea Exchange on the 1st of next month. Afterward, the Listing Committee will review the application and notify the results within 45 days. Upon approval from the Exchange, the company intends to submit a securities registration statement to the Financial Services Commission, aiming to enter the KOSPI market as early as the first half of next year.

For the IPO, NH Investment & Securities was selected as the lead underwriter, with Korea Investment & Securities and Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities as joint underwriters. The company has announced plans to grow as a research and development and production platform company in the vaccine and bio sectors. Its main products include self-developed cell-cultured influenza vaccines, shingles vaccines, and chickenpox vaccines. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it is conducting Phase 3 clinical trials for typhoid vaccines with the International Vaccine Institute and for pediatric rotavirus vaccines with the global organization PATH. The next-generation pneumococcal vaccine, co-developed with Sanofi Pasteur, is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials in the United States.

On the 24th, the company began clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate and is developing another COVID-19 vaccine, also supported by the Gates Foundation, aiming to start clinical trials within this year. Additionally, it has signed a contract for contract manufacturing of a vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials, and a contract development and manufacturing agreement with Novavax in the United States.

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