Medytox Inc., South Korea’s top producer of botulinum toxin, has joined hands with an Australian biotechnology company Vaxine Pty Ltd. to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.

According to Australian vaccine developer Vaxine Pty on Saturday, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Medytox to jointly develop COVAX-19, its promising vaccine candidate against COVID-19.

Under the agreement signed by the two companies on May 12, Vaxine and Medytox will work together to “conduct product development, process development, clinical trial program and commercial scale-up for the Australian and Asian markets, including Korea.”

COVAX-19 is developed using Advax, Vaxine’s novel adjuvant platform technology, combined with a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The vaccine is currently in its last phase non-clinical animal testing. The result of its first phase human clinical trial is expected to come out in August.

Vaxine said second and third phase clinical trials will be carried out in the fourth quarter of this year for its official launch early next year.

Yang Gi-hyeok, vice president of Medytox, said that it was able to discover strong evidence on immunogenicity of COVAX-19 when carrying out non-clinical research and that it has decided to conduct joint development given Vaxine’s outstanding and credible vaccine developing approach.

Vaxine – established in 2002 – has developed vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza.

The partnership will allow Vaxine to provide its proprietary antigen and adjuvant platforms and clinical trial know-how, the Australian company said. Medytox will provide extensive expertise and know-how in good manufacturing practice (GMP) biological product and process development.

By Kim Byung-ho and Lee Eun-joo

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