SK Bioscience, a vaccine house under SK Chemicals, said on Thursday it has signed a contract to produce antigen for Novavax`s coronavirus vaccine hopeful NVX-CoV2373 at its L-House vaccine facility in Korea.

The contract, which follows SK Bioscience’s prior production arrangement with AstraZeneca last month, encompasses SK Bioscience’s global supply of NVX-CoV2373 after additional development of Novavax`s shot candidate with antigen manufacturing technology transferred from the U.S. to Korea.

Shares of parent SK Chemicals closed down 11.47 percent at 386,000 won on Friday after touching as high as 466,000 won earlier in the morning.

SK Bioscience and Novavax also agreed with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to ensure fast and stable production of the vaccine, support global supply for fair distribution and public health improvement through vaccine introduction to Korea.

“As a Korean company, we will do our best to keep pace with the government`s policy of employing a two-track strategy of domestic development and importation of vaccines,” said Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK Bioscience.

By Kim Byung-ho and Minu Kim

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